With regard to your story about street drinkers in Worthing (The Argus, November 26), the problem is a challenging one that requires a holistic approach - balancing enforcement and support in equal measures. A local action team has been established involving a range of partner agencies, council, police, drug and alcohol action team, voluntary agencies and the primary care trusts.

We have collected together all of the reports of street drinkers and the vast majority of these are about low level, nuisance issues, mainly around the perception of street drinkers, which makes people feel unsafe. We understand that this is an issue in itself and will be trying to address it by reducing the number of street drinkers in Worthing.

Tackling this issue is a priority and we are looking at further work we can develop. One of these is a new outreach worker post that is currently in the developmental stage. We will continue to work closely with our neighbours (Brighton and Hove and Arun) to ensure a coherent approach.

  • Tina Favier, community safety manager, Worthing Borough Council