A TOWN centre booze ban may be the only way to drive out drunken yobs after a gang of youths went on an alcohol-fuelled rampage.
Surrey Police will deploy more officers in Horley this weekend after a group of 20 teenagers overturned rubbish bins,hurled stones at buildings and kicked fences on Friday night.
Allen Kay, ward councillor for Horley Central, and Richard Nixon, ward councillor for Horley East, are calling for police to introduce a control zone banning the public consumption of alcohol.
They say the ban would combat escalating town centre vandalism related to under-age drinking.
Councillor Kay said: "A control zone is a good idea. There seems to have been an increase in the amount of malicious damage being done round the town and there are apparently gangs of up to 25 youths sitting on walls and drinking.
"Last Friday's escapade was obviously by some youths who have got hold of some alcohol and gone on a drink-fuelled spree."
And Councillor Nixon urged Surrey Police, which is responsible for implementing control zones and recently introduced one in Redhill, to extend the measure to Horley.
He said: "If we had something like the control zone in place in Horley the police could have acted much earlier and this wouldn't have happened."
Where an alcohol control zone is active, police have the power to impose an instant £500 fine on anyone consuming alcohol in public if they refuse to comply with police orders or are persistent offenders.
However,Councillor Kay said the move to ban smoking in public places, which came into effect earlier this year, complicated the issue.
He said: "This year the new smoking law has come in which makes the issue very difficult.
"Quite often you go to a pub and there are people standing in the street with a pint and a cigarette, and we don't want to penalise the pubs."
Councillor Nixon watched Friday's events unfold from his flat, in Lumley Road, and reported the incident to police.
He said a group of 20 drunk "rioters" were overturning bins, throwing stones and kicking fences at the junction of the High Street, Lumley Road and Consort Way East.
A spokesman for Surrey Police said officers were called to reports of "rowdy behaviour" in Horley town centre at 11.15pm on Friday but no arrests were made.
Clive Davies, the borough's neighbourhood inspector, confirmed neighbourhood officers would be conducting high-visibility patrols this weekend, but said Horley was "a very safe town".
Last month, a reveller needed hospital treatment and another two women were arrested after a fight outside Liquid Lounge nightclub, in Consort Way, in the early hours of the morning.
And the Mirror revealed Horley town centre was the most crime-ridden area in East Surrey after obtaining police statistics in December.
Horley Central came top of 39 wards in the region with 827 crimes for the financial year from April 2005 to April 2006.
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