BESIEGED town-centre traders in Poole are calling for an alcohol ban to end the misery being caused by drunks and drug addicts.

Alleyways and car parks are being used as toilets and hang-outs for drinking and drug taking, according to Linda Mundle, manager of Reel Time arcade, who is leading the charge.

She claims that fights break out and shop staff are scared walking to their cars.

She told the Echo the plague of antisocial behaviour was creating a “no-go area” at the lower end of the High Street and around Old Orchard and New Orchard.

Fed up with a lack of action, she launched a petition for an alcohol-free zone – and gathered 75 signatures in just over an hour.

“We’re suffering down there,” she said. “It’s horrible antisocial behaviour. They’re squaring up to each other on the street – they’re drunk all day.

“All the alleyways off the high street are being used by people drinking and taking drugs. People feel threatened – it’s intimidating.”

She added: “I don’t believe that the council can’t do anything, the police can’t do anything and the town-centre management can’t do anything. It’s getting to be a no-go zone.”

The problems have also spilled out around the Guildhall and earlier this week the Echo reported that residents’ lives too were being made a misery.

Town Centre manager Richard Randle-Jones told the Echo he backed a no-alcohol area, but said attempts to implement one in the summer had floundered because police hadn’t had enough reports of incidents of alcohol-related antisocial behaviour to support it.

He called on traders to join the safer business scheme to enable him to fund two permanent security guards for the town centre.

He said: “The long-term solution I believe is for retailers to join our scheme and help us tidy up the town.”

Police Sergeant Billy Bulloch, who heads up the Poole Town and Oakdale Safer Neighbourhood Team, said his team had been working to tackle the issue by visiting traders and gathering evidence.

He added: “We’re also continually conducting enhanced foot patrols in the area and taking enforcement action against anyone found to be behaving antisocially.”

And at a meeting yesterday, police and council officers agreed that they would consider handing out injunctions or antisocial behaviour orders, and would consider a Designated Public Place order for the area, which makes it an offence to drink alcohol there after being told not to by a police officer.

Ian Cooke, acting community safety and development manager, said: “We are currently working to collect evidence in support of this.”

* What traders say...

Joanne Vincent, of Plan-Knit Wool on the High Street, said: “We run a crocheting and knitting class on a Thursday evening and it’s horrible – we have to lock the door.

“We had a fight outside the other week and we had to let people out at the back – there were tables and chairs going everywhere – and that was on a Thursday at 8pm.”

Gloria Warren, who owns The Tanning Studio on the High Street, said the area has “disintegrated” in the last four years – and moving there was the “worst mistake we ever made”.

“I won’t lock up on my own now – my husband has to come in from home to lock up for me and walk me to the car,” she added.

She said Bowling Green Alley next to her shop was used as a toilet and the stench was “unbearable”. She’d regularly seen what she thought were drug deals going on in the street outside.

David Pearce of Premiere Bites on the High Street said: “They are always using the alleyway as a toilet or in the car park drinking and laying around.”

Rhea Farris, owner of New Street Flowers, said: “When I’m here by myself I do get nervous if I see them.

“You don’t know what they’re going to do next – it’s intimidating. I think it stops people coming down here.”