PEOPLE under the age of 21 could be refused service if they try to buy alcohol in New Milton off-licences.

The tough move relies on the goodwill of shopkeepers and is part of a bid to cut drunkenness and vandalism.

A successful trial has taken place in the Waterside area of the New Forest.

Sgt Bernadette Smith said now is the time to try it in New Milton.

"What we're looking at is to try and get the licensees on board and not to serve customers if they think they're not 21," she said.

"It relies on their co-operation. It has to be explored to see if that will be appropriate."

The lawful age to purchase and consume alcohol will still be 18.

"Lots of youngsters tend to look a lot older than they are, but there's quite a difference between a young teenager trying to be 18 than trying to be 21.

"At 21 a lot of people are working by then, or they're in higher education."

She warned that police would use their power of seizure if they found under-age drinkers with alcohol brought from home.

High visibility policing will be used in a bid to cut anti-social behaviour in New Milton recreation ground after councillors called on police to act.

"Insp John Heath has got to address it because it has gone beyond a joke with the people of New Milton. They are fed up with it," mayor Cllr Goff Beck told the town council amenities committee. Sgt Smith, speaking for Insp Heath, said a multi-agency meeting had taken place to highlight the problems. They mainly occur on Friday and Saturday nights.

In addition to drunkenness, residents have reported fights, broken windows, littering, illegal use of motorcycles and verbal abuse.

"The police can stick a plaster on the short-term problems, but it's the long-term issues to make sure that it doesn't recur we need to look at," she said.

The high-visibility policing will take place in the town centre recreation ground and Ashley sports ground.

Council amenities chairman Cllr John Hutchins called for six additional lights in the recreation ground.

Budget constraints in the past had meant five lights had been installed.

Other improvements could include removing a store where "an undesirable element" meets, block off the voids below skatepark jumps where people have been known to hide from police and the installation of youth shelters.

Estimates are to be obtained for a mural to be painted on the south wall of the indoor bowls centre and a concrete extension to the skatepark.

Cllr Beck said the mural, painted by young people but designed by a professional artist, would cover up graffiti.