15808/02PUBLICANS and police are adopting a new get tough policy towards anyone who causes trouble in any of Pewsey's half a dozen pubs.

The reactivation of the village's PubWatch scheme has been prompted by the stringent new licensing laws that come into effect this week.

They include on the spot fines for any pub, club or member of their bar staff knowingly serving alcohol to someone who is already drunk.

All the pubs in the village have signed up to a new "out of one, out of them all" policy.

It has been welcomed by the local police commander Sgt Andy Peach who said Pewsey was adopting the same get-tough policy on drunkenness and violence in pubs already in operation in places like Marlborough and Devizes.

It was possible in the fullness of time, said Sgt Peach, that there would be a link up between Pewsey and the other towns and that anyone banned from pubs in Pewsey would be unable to get a drink on any licensed premises in the district.

Sgt Peach and the lead PubWatch co-ordinator Jerry Kunkler, who runs the Moonrakers in High Street, both emphasised that serious drunkenness or violence is rare in Pewsey.

There have, however, been occasional small spates that have come to the attention of the police.

Sgt Peach said it was the intention to stamp out any violence or the kind of drunkenness that could lead to a breach of the peace.

He said: "Licensees have agreed to bar anyone who commits any act of violence on licensed premises or where a member of staff is threatened or attacked.

"There have been a few small incidents and the pub landlords and managers and also the police do not want these to escalate.

"They will take a strong stance on anyone who gets drunk and misbehaves and it will be with the full backing of Pewsey police."

Sgt Peach said he hoped that pubs in the villages around Pewsey would also sign up to the PubWatch scheme to ensure anyone banned from one local pub was banned from them all.

Mr Kunkler, who is a Kennet district councillor, said he was delighted other pubs were joining the scheme.

He said: "It will be run along similar lines to the PubWatch they run in Marlborough and anyone barred from one pub will automatically be banned from the rest."

In his own pub, the Moonrakers, Mr Kunkler and his staff run a soccer style Yellow Card and Red Card system. Any customers showing the first signs of aggression are shown a yellow card which means they have to be on their best behaviour for a year.

Anyone who ignores a yellow card warning or anyone who throws a punch or a head but is shown a red card and banned from the pub for a minimum of three months.

Mr Kunkler, who has been running the Moonrakers for 24 years and is the village's longest serving landlord, said: "We have been operating this system for ten years and it seems to work well."

Mr Kunkler said there was probably less trouble in Pewsey than in any other community the same size with the same number of pubs.

"We do get the odd spate of bother, but generally its more of a nuisance than anything else, the same old ones who like to push it too far," he said.