Yeovil street drinking deterrents to stay until 2025

The council voted unanimously to extend the order

A Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) to prevent street drinking and begging in Yeovil will stay in place until October 2025.

It means anyone asked to stop doing either in the town centre has to do so, or risk a £100 fixed penalty notice.

It will also be an offence not to surrender the liquor if an officer asks for it.

South Somerset Council's executive voted unanimously to extend the order for another three years.

While the area in which begging is banned remains a relatively small part of Yeovil town centre, a bigger zone to curb street drinking was introduced last year.

This is enforced from the hospital grounds on Higher Kingston in the north to Brunswick Street in the south, and from the A30 Queensway in the west to the top of Wyndham Hill in the east.

It's hoped that more people will want to spend time in the town centre as a result of the PSPO remaining in place.

Councillor Peter Gubbins said several people have told him they're concerned about spending time in the area: "The town centre is not a place where we want to see people regularly taking drugs in the daytime or laying about drinking."

But one leading councillor suggested that the authority should make sure people with mental health issues who fall foul of the PSPOs over the next three years are properly signposted, the Local Democracy Reporter Service said.

Nicola Clark, portfolio holder for housing, said: "Nine times out of ten, homelessness and addiction are not a choice - they're a product of an incredibly difficult life.

"While we commit to making people feel safer in their town centre, we also have to commit to talk about these people like they are people and that we continue to support them."

Follow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [e-mail]