A HARD core of alcoholics at Frogmoor in High Wycombe could find their outdoor drinking days are numbered.

Members of Wycombe District Council's community and leisure committee are being asked to back a by-law which would make it an offence to drink in public in certain parts of High Wycombe, Marlow and Princes Risborough.

Inspector George Wrigley, of High Wycombe police, who wants to clean up Frogmoor, is backing the by-law.

He says there is a hard core of alcoholics who hang about getting more and more drunk.

Insp Wrigley said: 'We can't do anything about them until they get into this stage and cause trouble.

"With a ban on outdoor drinking he will be able to remove them quickly.

"The police view is that we want to improve community safety. Violence in the town is beginning to come down because we have a dedicated town team. But we still have problems with people drinking in Frogmoor all day."

Wycombe district councillor Dennis Green (Con, Princes Risborough), who is backing the by-law, said there was a problem with under-age drinking in his town. He blamed parents for giving their children cans of drink.

He said: "Youngsters go round drinking in the parks. There have been a number of complaints to me from elderly residents about kids getting drunk and boisterous.

"Some parents are giving their children drink."

Chris Mansfield, the council's town centre manager for High Wycombe, Princes Risborough and Marlow, said street drinking was a problem in most town centres around the country

The council wants the town centre to be the sort of place everyone wants to visit during the evenings for the theatre and the new pubs and restaurants.

Members were due to make a decision on the by-law last night.

See Friday's Bucks Free Press to find out if it was given the go-ahead