Street drinking was a real issue in Boston at the 2015 election, and I pledged to work with the council, police and others to tackle it.

As one of the first towns in the UK to use legislation to try and limit anti-social street drinking, there’s a Public Space Protection Order that makes it an offence to fail to surrender alcohol when asked to do so, and since the introduction of the PSPO we’ve seen a significant drop in reports. There is more to do, but significant progress has been made.

Today, we see lower numbers of reports than ever, and pro-active police action outweighs complaints from the public, as the data in the graphic below shows. I’d like to thank all those involved who have helped to tackle this problem, and would urge all those who want to see even more done to bear in mind that if an offence isn’t reported, authorities won’t know how best to act.