IT’S street furniture, but not as you know it.

Drinkers, undeterred by the removal of public benches in one of their favourite hang-outs, found their own solution to a lack of seating today.

Traders have long been complaining about anti-social drinkers congregating in Northgate square, off Rawson Road, which hosts the Oastler statue.

Around a month ago, Bradford Council took the step of removing the benches in the square.

But this morning, drinkers there were sat on a sofa and bed instead.

It’s understood the unwanted furniture had been left outside a nearby property, before the street-drinkers dragged it into the square this morning, where it remained for some hours before being removed.

Frustrated traders said groups of drinkers still regularly gathered in and around the square, leaving empty alcohol cans around and urinating on the statue of Richard Oastler or in stairwells and shop doorways.

David Oxtoby, of JH Oxtoby and Sons watch repair shop, said: “It is definitely a problem.

“They are there every day. They litter the whole street.

“It hasn’t alleviated the problem, taking the seat away. They will either sit at the bottom of the square or on the other benches nearby.

“There can be ten or 15 of them sometimes.”

Mr Oxtoby said if drinkers were moved away from one area of the city, they just gathered somewhere else.

He said the police were “doing their best” and said the answer lay in addressing the supply of alcohol.

He said: “For somebody to be sat with a can at 8am, where are they getting it from?”

He said he knew the Aquarius News off-licence on the square was a responsible retailer, but said the situation must be a frustration for them as people might jump to the wrong conclusions, given the number of drinkers outside.

Nassim Ahmed, owner of Aquarius News, said he had barred around 20 street-drinkers from his premises, but they would try every trick in the book to get served, such as getting other people to try to buy alcohol for them.

He said he now quizzed some customers about where they were planning to consume their drinks, or who they were buying them for.

Mr Ahmed said he had even been challenged to a fight by one person he refused to serve.

He said: “I have been threatened. They say, ‘We are going to do your shop, mate.’”

Mr Ahmed said the impromptu street furniture had only been in the square for a few hours, and drinkers tended to sit on the steps now the benches were gone.

He said: “They can still sit on the steps anyway, so why take the benches out, because they are still going to be sitting there.”

A police spokesman said: “Police in Bradford are committed to making the city centre a safer place for all, and our officers continue to work with partners to tackle the issues which are of most concern to the public.”

A spokesman for Bradford Council said the sofa and bed had been removed today.

The spokesman said the benches had been removed in the first week of May, citing maintenance reasons, but could not say whether this removal was permanent.

When the T&A highlighted the problem back in February, a joint statement from council and police bosses said they were taking various steps to tackle the issue, “including closing off areas where drug dependent and street drinkers gather”.