A TOWN centre resident claims "no drinking" signs in Market Place are useless as police are doing little to stop drinkers flouting the ban.

Lynn MacDougall said on most evenings she sees gangs sitting on the steps between Three Cooks and the Oxfam shop with carrier bags full of alcohol, openly swigging from bottles and cans.

She said she also often sees some of these people using the steps or the church grounds as a toilet and residents were finding their behaviour increasingly intimidating

"I live in the town centre and have never seen any enforcement of the signs by police," she added.

"Why has our money been wasted on putting up these signs if they're not going to be enforced?''

But Chief Insp Stuart Crebbin said while they had not had that many complaints, they recognised there was an anti-social issue there involving alcohol and the boundary of the existing order was not big enough to effectively deal with it.

"The current designated area is around the church green and we did enforce this when the order was first issued but quickly realised people were moving across the road to an area not covered or away from the vicinity," he said.

"If you haven't got an officer stationed there all the time, they'll simply return.

"We recognise that problem and that's why we're now working with the local authority through the Community Safety Partnership with a view to extending the area to cover the whole town centre.

''The area has not been finalised and a public consultation exercise will take place soon."