ON Saturday, a circus performed in Gwent Square. On bank holiday Monday, it will be the stage of the Sunshine Clowns.

But by night, this square at the centre of the Cwmbran Shopping complex has become a meeting place for street drinkers.

People visiting the cinema, the theatre or the bingo hall have been scandalised by fighting and drinkers urinating on cash machines, are are often verbally abused.

So now Gwent Police, working with the Cwmbran Safety Partnership, have acted to end the drinkers' reign of terror.

From midnight tonight, drinking outside anywhere in Cwmbran town centre is illegal. Police can confiscate alcohol, and if drinkers refuse they can be arrested and punished with a £500 fine.

And Blaenavon town centre is set to follow suit later in the year.

PC Darrell Dewar, crime reduction officer for Cwmbran, said: "The drinkers were teenagers and adults, and it was concentrated in Gwent Square.

"They were simply going to the local supermarket, buying booze and drinking it there all night."

PC Dewar added: "From September 1, anyone we arrest will have to face a fixed-penalty fine, and when you tell people there's a £40 penalty full stop it makes them think they'd better get out of there.

"The problem may go elsewhere, but if the drinkers go to other areas, then we'll do the same thing there."

Neil Jones, evening manager of the Congress Theatre, in Gwent Square, said: "This problem has been going on for a few years. The drinkers would sit outside and their language was terrible.

"There was sometimes violence as well, and people were frightened to come past them into the theatre.

"Even the little children coming to the youth theatre, some of them only eight years old, were verbally abused."

He said on one occasion youngsters 'mooned' at a police sergeant picking up his child from the theatre.

I hope this ban is going to make a difference," he said.

Gerry Hutchings, manager of Cwmbran Shopping and the privately owned town centre, said: "We're not saying this is a huge problem, but this should stop it before it gets any worse."