A CONTROVERSIAL plan to ban irresponsible drinking in public gardens has come under fire for shifting the problem elsewhere.

The crack-down, targeting criminal and anti-social behaviour, will see Blenheim Gardens, Minehead, and Williton Memorial Ground, being the first to be subject to designation orders, giving police powers to arrest people who carry on drinking alcohol after being asked by an officer not to.

Peter Hughes, the council's community safety liaison officer, said other local authorities had found it necessary to expand the areas covered by designation orders because drinkers had found other places nearby where they could carry on drinking.

He told a meeting of West Somerset Council's cabinet on Monday that Irnham Road in Minehead, Killick Way and Bellamy's Corner, Williton were among areas likely to be most affected as a result of the proposed orders.

Cllr Jess Griffith, who represents Old Cleeve, said: "Banning people from one place will just move them to another place.

"I'm very uneasy about this. Are we going to end up with the whole of Somerset being brought under a ban?

"We seem to be jumping on a band wagon. It's not illegal to have a drink."

Minehead South Cllr Martyn Snell, a former police inspector, said people told to stop drinking in Belnheim Gardens would move to Jubilee Gardens or the sea front.

"We need to look at the policing of the sale of alcohol," he said.

"There is a duty on licensees not to sell to people who are in drink.

Dunster Cllr Bryan Leaker said the designation orders would be hard to enforce.

"We've got fewer police now than we had five years ago," he said.

The orders would provide police officers with discretionary powers to request people not to drink, and to surrender alcohol.

A person would commit an arrestable offence if they failed to comply.

The orders would still allow the general public to enjoy consuming alcohol in a responsible way at events at these sites.