Anti-social behaviour, including being drunk in the streets and use of abusive language, is being targeted by police during the next few weeks in Fakenham.

Anti-social behaviour, including being drunk in the streets and use of abusive language, is being targeted by police during the next few weeks in Fakenham.

Officers are determined to crack down on people responsible for incidents of anti-social behaviour and will continue issuing on-the-spot fixed penalty £80 fines.

With the lighter evenings, police admit that the level of anti-social behaviour is giving them cause for concern.

Sgt Tony Toynton said there was a drink culture in the town, and supermarkets offering large amounts of alcohol at cheap prices wasn't helping the situation.

“There is very much a drink culture in the town with young people in the late teens and early twenties and it manifests itself during the daytime with foul language and boisterous behaviour. Fakenham has a lovely little town centre but it is being spoilt by the minority who are going on the lash at 10 o'clock in the morning,” he said.

Sgt Toynton spoke of his concerns about the problems when he attended a meeting of Fakenham Town Council last Tuesday. He said there had been four recent incidents of assaults in the town which were all drink-related.

He said the town's landlords are aware of the problems and happy to work with police in combating the incident of drink-related offending.

St Toynton said the initiative would be continuing for the next few weeks and consideration should be given to bringing back a pub watch scheme whereby, if a person was banned from one pub, that person would be banned from all pubs in the town.

He said that the anti-social behaviour problems in Fakenham were worse now than two years ago.

“During the next five weeks there will be targeted patrols in Fakenham town centre at weekends relating to anti-social behaviour and officers would not hesitate to issue £80 fixed penalty tickets. In fact, they have already issued some of these,” he said.

He said it was the same as being issued with a parking ticket, with 28 days to pay it.

“Over the last two weekends when I have been on patrol with the staff it is quite evident that we need to direct resources into this area of anti-social behaviour,” he said.