Residents in Brighton have been asked to keep a street-drinking diary as part of a drive to have it banned.

Reports of drunks harassing and threatening people in the St James's Street and St George's Road area led to proposals for a bylaw forbidding drinking in designated public places.

Now local people are being asked to record these incidents in their own individual street-drinking diaries and describe the effect they have on them.

The diaries will be kept for two months before being presented to Brighton and Hove Council's community safety team for analysis at the end of February. A report will be published later in the year.

The information will help the team establish the extent of the problem and highlight street-drinking hot spots so they can draw up effective boundaries for the scheme.

Brighton and Hove Council has already agreed in principle to support the bylaw and has set up an advisory group which includes representatives from the local community and traders' associations, support services and Sussex Police.

The community safety team already has data on all incidents related to street drinking which have been reported to Sussex Police but it wants information about local people's day-to-day experiences.

Diary keepers have been asked to record any incidents which occur between The Royal Pavilion, in the west, to Eaton Place, in the east, and from Edward Street and Eastern Road, in the north, to the seafront.

The survey has been set up like a diary so local people can concentrate on a particular location which is in sight of their homes or businesses.

Brighton and Hove Council carried out research into the bylaw once with Sussex Police before abandoning the idea.

However supporters of the bylaw said similar schemes had been successfully adopted elsewhere in the country and have cut drink related crime.

They hope the bylaw will be introduced in the Kemp Town area next year.