Rising crime and disorder has led to an application for town centre drinking bans.

Ward councillors, backed by West Yorkshire Police, have agreed to apply for Designated Public Places Orders (DPPOs) that would make it an offence to drink outside within large parts of Otley, Guiseley, Yeadon and Horsforth.

The move is designed to combat drink-fuelled anti-social and criminal behaviour and could be implemented within a year.

A report to the committee said crime statistics showed that: "Otley, Yeadon, Horsforth and Guiseley town centres have all suffered from alcohol related crime and anti-social behaviour.

"A DPPO could assist in preventing and tackling alcohol-related nuisance."

Police Sergeant Neil Perkiss, outlining some of the problems, said: "The drunken behaviour tends to be standard but the characteristics of each area have quite an influence.

"In Otley there is a big market town area and you will get underage drinking in combination with people leaving the pubs carrying drinks on pub crawls.

"Another problem is the amount of glass on the streets on a Saturday and Sunday morning, where you're quite literally crunching glass underfoot.

"In Horsforth the problem is drinkers go down Town Street and then head to New Road Side through a residential area where the poor residents have been putting up with too much noise for years."

He admitted, however, there could be places where the orders might not work and cited Otley's former Bowling Green pub, now being redeveloped by Wetherspoons, as an example.

Committee member Councillor Graham Latty (Con, Guiseley and Rawdon) welcomed the bid for DPPOs.

He said: "The huge problem we have in Guiseley is of people moving around with drinks in the town centre, carrying them between pubs and giving them to younger people who can't handle them.

"It's those problems we're trying to get rid of, and I'm all for anything that gives us a chance to reduce drink-fuelled anti-social behaviour."

A long process, which Coun Townsley hopes might be completed within 12 months, will now begin involving analysing crime and anti-social statistics and holding a public consultation for each area.