MORE than 130 people have been arrested on the streets of Hampshire in the first month of an alcohol crackdown.

Officers arrested 137 people and issued 65 fixed penalty notices of £40 for drunken and disorderly behaviour and harassment.

The move is part of a national drive called the Safer Streets Initiative to stamp out drink fuelled offending.

It comes after a rise in the number of violent crimes reported in the county linked to alcohol.

Since July 8 police officers and trading standards officers have visited 458 pubs and clubs as well as 48 off-licences.

On 60 occasions they seized alcohol after drinkers were caught in no-drinking zones and there were ten confiscations from youths.

Dispersal orders were put in place 17 times to ban troublemakers from gathering in areas with a history of alcohol related offending.

Throughout the summer police will be stepping up officer presence on the streets of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight on weekend evenings.

Assistant Chief Constable Simon Cole said: "The level of activity which we have been undertaking as part of this crackdown demonstrates our commitment to tackling alcohol-related disorder across the constabulary through the Safer Streets campaign.

There will be no let-up in our drive to tackle drink-fuelled crime across the two counties.

"The constabulary is committed to working with Trading Standards officers, pubs and retailers in a targeted programme of enforcement to use their powers to prevent sales to people under-age, people who are drunk or serving beyond licensed hours.

"Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are among the safest places in the country to live and work.

We want to make them even safer by tackling the kind of yobbery which so often goes hand in hand with excessive consumption of alcohol."