ADULTS buying alcohol for under-age drinkers face on-the-spot fines in Darwen as part of a joint operation between off-licences and the police.

Officers from Darwen are the first in Eastern Division to start issuing fixed penalty fines in the street to people supplying alcohol to children as well as on-the-spot fines to young people causing alcohol-fuelled disorder.

The crackdown is in response to residents' concerns raised during a recent Police and Communities Together (PACT) meeting held in the town.

It is aimed at reducing the amount of under-age drinking and juvenile nuisance in the town centre, particularly the Blackburn Road and Duckworth Street area.

Sgt Ian Hanson said: "We have an increased problem with juvenile nuisance fuelled by youngsters trying to buy alcohol from off-licences on the main road.

"This operation will be taking place during the next few weeks in partnership with the off-licences who have got notices in their shops saying they are under surveillance.

"We have covert police officers watching the area but we have also now got these new powers to issue fixed penalty notices on the street for people over the age of 18 who are going into off-licences and buying alcohol for children.

"The aim is to intercept those people and issue them with a ticket for £80.

He added that off-licences found it increasingly difficult because they were getting complaints from people about them selling to under-age children, when it was actually adults buying the alcohol on their behalf.

Officers can also issue a £40 fine to any young person in possession of alcohol and acting in a disorderly manner.

Sgt Hanson said: "The community raised concerns about the levels of alcohol-fuelled youth disorder at the PACT meeting so hopefully this will show we are responding. There will no be cautions, just on-the-spot fines if not arrests.

"Previously we would have perhaps considered off-licences to be part of the problem but we are now working in partnership with them."

Police have been given the power to issue on-the-spot fines for anti-social behaviour in three areas as part of a Home Office pilot project.

Lancashire police were among the first group of forces to take advantage of the legislation, with Pennine Division, covering Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale, the first area in the county to impose the fines earlier this year.