Parents have been sent letters by police after their children were found drinking alcohol on The Green in Devizes.

The move is part of a new multi-agency initiative, the Offence of Persistently Possessing Alcohol in a Public Place.

When three under-age drinkers were caught by police while attending the fair on the Green, the alcohol was confiscated and letters were sent to their parents to inform them of their children’s behaviour.

The youngsters are also being referred to the new multi-agency Anti-Social Behaviour Risk Assessment Conference and, if their offending behaviour continues, a decision will be made on whether to prosecute them and put them in front of a youth court.

Inspector Ron Peach of Devizes police said: “The whole process is designed to alert parents to their children’s behaviour and offer the opportunity for parental intervention before any criminal proceedings are initiated.

“Ultimately, it will be the young person that is prosecuted and possibly subjected to an anti-social behaviour order”.

Under-age drinking on The Green has been a constant problem for police and councils for some years.

On one occasion, a 14-year-old girl from Bishops Cannings had to be taken to Devizes Hospital to have her stomach pumped when she fell into an alcoholic stupor after consuming most of a bottle of vodka.

The litter left behind by these regular weekend binges costs Devizes Town Council more than £17,000 a year to collect.

Supermarkets in the town have operated a ban on sales of alcohol to people under 21 since 2004 but youngsters sometimes manage to get an adult, in some cases their parents, to buy it for them.

In 2009 the town council erected signs warning that The Green was a non-alcohol zone but by the next day they had been torn down.