Mental health patients are being urged to sign a special contract promising not to misbehave on a village bowling green.

The four, patients at The Willows private nursing home in Steeton, near Keighley, have shocked nearby residents by drinking, vomiting, urinating and having sex, it is claimed.

Now the police and Bradford Council's anti-social behaviour order team want them to sign a contract pledging to behave.

If they agree, they will have until May 6 to reform or face the tougher sanction of a full Anti-Social Behaviour Order.

And nearby residents have been recruited to help police monitor their behaviour.

They have been issued with diaries to note any times they see further misbehaviour.

Community PC Craig Strothers said the four - men and women who cannot be identified - would shortly be asked to sign the Acceptable Behaviour Contracts.

"If we feel there is a problem - that they do not understand fully the order and abide by it - we will not serve them," he said.

"We have talked to them at the home previously but it has not produced the results we hoped for, so we decided on this course of action."

Police patrols had been stepped up in the area and the parish council had also taken action.

It has erected a "No alcohol by order of the parish council" sign.

A Bradford Council spokesman said consultation was taking place with social workers and other health care officials and staff at the unit before the contracts were agreed.

It would be a voluntary agreement and if they failed to honour it, the four people could face a full ASBO.

Bradford Council has issued about 130 similar behaviour contracts in the last two years.

They are the first steps in action to curb anti-social behaviour and are voluntary.

The Willows is a private hospital which houses 54 patients with varying degrees of mental health problems. It is not a secure unit.

A spokeswoman for Craegmoor Healthcare, which runs The Willows, said they could not comment about individual cases.

"We do take the concerns of the local community very seriously and continue to make every effort to manage these issues sensibly and sensitively with the appropriate agencies," she said.