Street drinkers, drug takers, and brawlers are being targeted as part of a crackdown on antisocial behaviour in Dartford.

The council has agreed in principle to implement a public space protection order (PSPO) in the town centre similar to that introduced in Gravesend last summer, subject to a public consultation.

Central Park and the War Memorial are two areas that specifically require protection, and Westgate Car Park has also been identified as a major hot-spot for trouble that needs to be addressed.

Between July and October last year there were nine reported fights in the car park, including one involving baseball bats and a brawl between more than 20 people, and seven instances of drug taking and dealing.

The PSPO would give police and council officers greater power to combat such behaviour, as well as the ability to confiscate alcohol, legal highs, and clamp down on antisocial vehicle use such as racing and sounding horns between 8pm and 6am.

Council leader Cllr Jeremy Kite (Con) said: “It gives us an extra level of intervention opportunity in things that are worthwhile considering as something to be enforced against.

“This PSPO really does address those things that I would consider to be beyond the pale in terms of most people’s understanding of what represents a threat to our civilised standards of behaviour in the town centre.

“We also want to tackle things like legal highs. Quite apart from the damage I’m convinced it does to people’s health, this is behaviour that is simply not appropriate in a town centre where you are inviting families to attend.

“Having to clear up shovels full of the nitrous oxide canisters every morning is a horrendous thing to be doing in 2017 and it’s bad for people’s health.”

Cllr Kite is especially keen to see increased protection for the War Memorial, which is covered by designated public space protection order set to expire in October.

“The war memorial is much more than an asset, much more than a series of gardens, and memorials, and bits of stone and benches,” he continued.

“It has a huge significance for people and I find it hugely upsetting to see the way the ground is sometimes abused. To see people urinating, using the bushes as toilets, barely comprehensible and barely able to stand is just not right.”

Other councils have already introduced a PSPO, including Gravesham, but Cllr Kite said he was initially wary of signing off on one in Dartford in order to ensure a “balance between enforcement and civil liberties”.

"Our town is a good town and there’s no reason it can’t be one of the best towns in Kent, and I believe it can be" Cllr Patrick Coleman

Members of the cabinet agreed to the order at a meeting last night, with the leader acknowledging that they needed to “take a stand” to ensure that “it’s the good guys win and the bad guys that lose”.

Cllr Patrick Coleman added: “We need to try to encourage people to respect the town and live in it as decent people. Our town is a good town and there’s no reason it can’t be one of the best towns in Kent, and I believe it can be.”

It will cost the council £3,000 to bring in the PSPO, with money needed to put up new signs in the designated areas and pay for the public consultation to go ahead.

Police will also need to approve the order and will be responsible for enforcing it alongside the council’s community safety unit, with fines and possible court appearances for those caught out.

Dartford Labour leader Cllr Jonathon Hawkes said more resources should be put behind the order, but the council is confident providing additional power to existing provision will be sufficient.

Check back on Monday for more from last night's cabinet meeting, including plans to renovate Dartford's town centre transport links and the latest on a new council house development at Temple Hill.