DRINKERS face being banned from all the pubs in four North Somerset villages if they cause trouble. Landlords in Yatton, Congresbury, Cleeve and Claverham have all signed up to a new Pubwatch scheme and hope to work together to stop alcohol-related crime.

DRINKERS face being banned from all the pubs in four North Somerset villages if they cause trouble.Landlords in Yatton, Congresbury, Cleeve and Claverham have all signed up to a new Pubwatch scheme and hope to work together to stop alcohol-related crime.Under the scheme, if a landlord bans a drinker from his pub the offender will not be allowed through the doors of any of the other pubs in the four villages.Community beat officers PC Kim Tacchi and PC Andy Bibbings have organised the new project. They hope it will spell the end of alcohol-related crime in the villages and problems with notorious drinkers causing problems in pubs.They say troublemakers will now no longer be able to simply move on to the next village or pub if they are barred from one venue.PC Tacchi said: "The Pubwatch is now up and running and it is essentially landlords working in partnership and being supported by the police."It involves a collective approach to dealing with persistent troublemakers. Once they are barred from one pub they are barred from them all."The scheme will protect members of staff and the public against crime, such as assaults, and threats of crime."It will also lower the fear of crime and free up our time because hopefully we won't have to deal with the same old offenders."Landlords will be meeting regularly to discuss issues and if they have a problem drinker, they will be discussed and if they are banned his or her details will be displayed clearly in all of the pubs."Although a landlord in Congresbury may not know what a problem drinker from Yatton looks like, hopefully by displaying their details clearly they will be easily identified."All the landlords have mine and PC Bibbings' contact details so we can be called if there is a problem.