At a meeting involving leading town councillors, local police chiefs and agencies handling anti-social behaviour, experts took turns in trying to convince town mayor Burt Keimach and his deputy Guy Grainger that their crusade was ill-placed.


The town council, in response to initial calls from St Thomas' Church three years ago, is pushing for a ban on drinking alcohol in the street, a so-called DPPO, in the hope that it would curb youth-related nuisance, damage and street violence.


But after an intense operation involving 250 hours of manpower over the Hallowe'en and bonfire season, a direct appeal to householders around the parks to report all concerns and the marking up of 12,000 bottles of alcohol in four town off-licences - pioneering in Lincolnshire - the police say the measure is not the right way to tackle perceived problems.


Safety team leader Bob Bayliss said there were only six drink related problems in four weeks, two replies to 100 personally delivered letters and none of the marked bottles found discarded on the parks.


"We have put a huge amount into this and have not identified a core problem. A DPPO would be disproportionate to the people of Market Rasen. As a community we would all be better served channelling our energies into the small core of 10 or so troublemakers than in chasing a DPPO." he said.


Inspector Rod Brant said his officers could cope without a DPPO. "I have never said that there isn't a problem. One incident is a problem in some people's eyes, but based on the evidence we have, we do not need any additional powers.


"Given the amount of anti-social behaviour we have it does not necessitate a DPPO," he said.


Beat manager PC Rob Graves said criminal damage was more of an issue than drink-related problems, saying he did not think the damage was fuelled by alcohol.


Not prepared to let it drop, the councillors wants to get more information on why Horncastle is being considered for a DPPO when its crime level is little higher than Rasen's and want to encourage people to report all concerns and incidents to police to gauge an accurate picture of disorder.


Councillor Guy Grainger said, "There is clearly an impasse between the town council that wants a DPPO and Lincolnshire Police and West Lindsey that are broadly against."


Sergeant Paul Warmoth said the only problem was in the town council's perception of the scale of the problem. "We have invested 100s of man hours, the public has been encouraged to report all concerns and we have still not come across the big problem with drink-related crime you say there is," he said.


The bottle watch scheme involved bottles being marked so that the outlet from which they were bought could be identified. It will now be tweeked and rolled out elsewhere in the county.


* Who do you think is right, the police or the council? Send your thoughts by writing in or emailing jason.hippisley@jpress.co.uk