A purge on street drinkers has led one to be banned from parts of Bradford city centre for three years after magistrates imposed an Anti-Social Behaviour Order.

Dean Hale’s behaviour was found to have caused or been likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to others, the city’s magistrates heard yesterday.

Hale, 32, of St Paul’s Road, Manningham, was banned from an area including Rawson Road, North Parade and Northgate until August, 2014.

He was also prohibited from acting or inciting others to act in an anti-social manner, being drunk in a public place, using threatening and abusive language and possessing alcohol in public unless on licensed premises.

Hale was also banned from having contact in public with six other people aged between 21 and 42.

After the hearing John Crosland, Asbo officer for Bradford Council, said Hale was the first of several nuisance drinkers the Council was seeking to ban from parts of the city centre.

He said: “There’s a problem in the city centre with drunks and this particular person is a prolific drunkard causing members of the public and business people in the Rawson Square area harassment, alarm and distress.

“There will be more Asbos to follow. This sort of behaviour won’t be tolerated on the streets of Bradford.”

Helen Smith, a police Asbo officer who was also at the hearing, said: “He has been abusive and threatening. It’s blighting the lives of the people that lawfully live and work in that area.”

Val Summerscales, secretary of Bradford Chamber of Trade, said nuisance drinkers were an ongoing problem for businesses.

She said: “If Asbos are being used as a deterrent I think shops would welcome it wholeheartedly. If some of the others see this is the consequence of what they are doing they might decide to move away. They are a nuisance and disruptive and it could be costing the traders at the top of the town centre customers because people don’t want to walk past them.”