Crime in pubs across Bamber Bridge has been slashed since a new yellow and red card scheme was launched.

The Pub Watch scheme, which targets alcohol related crime, was launched in April 2004.

The number of assaults has gone down from 13 between April and July last year to just three for the same period this year.

The number of violent crimes has reduced from eight to just one for the same period.

PC Ed Clayton, community beat manager for Bamber Bridge, said: "There used to be a lot of trouble, particularly at last orders at the weekends with fights. People now know it won't be tolerated."

The scheme uses yellow and red cards to warn and ban troublemakers in and outside of the town's pubs.

The Pub Watch Committee, made up of almost every licensee in the town, decide whether offenders get a warning or a six-month ban. The identity of anyone banned is circulated to each landlord so they can remove banned boozers from their pub.

Dale Bentley, 26, of School Lane, Bamber Bridge, is a regular at the School Lane Working Men's Club. He said: "I used to be wary of walking about at night but there's not as much fighting now. It really seems to work."

Alison Salisbury, a barperson at the Lancs and York Pub, Station Road, said: "I've worked here for six years and I've never felt safer. We now know exactly who the troublemakers are."

But a resident of Old Hall Drive said the town's boozing problem has not been licked, just moved on.

Paul, 24, who did not wish his surname to be printed, added: "Hopefully new 24-hour licensing laws will help because it stops everyone being kicked out at the same time which is when trouble can start."

l In Preston police run a Banning Order Scheme, started in April, this year, and Sergeant Andy Hobson said officers have seen a drop in violent crime and expect it to reduce even more.

The Leyland Pub Watch scheme, running for more than two years and including nine pubs and clubs, has seen ten people barred since the start of the initiative.