Police in Brighton today stepped in to end years of misery for people living in a drunks' hangout dubbed Smack Square.

Bottles of vodka and cans of high-strength beer were poured down drains by eight officers who swooped on Norfolk Square, a notorious outdoor drinkers' haunt.

Teams have kept the square under surveillance for the past four weeks. Today they took action under the city's new street drinking ban.

The force has been criticised for not taking a hard enough line against the drinkers.

Today, no one escaped justice.

A woman carrying a snake chatted with police until they turned their back. Then she pulled a can of lager from her jeans and started swigging from it.

Uniformed officers did not see her but undercover spotters radioed their colleagues who confiscated the drink and tipped it away.

Sergeant Richard Siggs, in charge of the crackdown, said: "It is going to get very expensive for them if they keep flouting the bylaw.

"We know we can't be at all the hot spots all the time but drinkers will never know when we are watching."

Residents in Norfolk Square have welcomed the booze blitz but some were doubtful whether police could keep up the pressure.

One woman said: "What these drinkers and druggies do here has been absolutely disgusting and it was wonderful to see the police. But I doubt whether they can stop it completely.

"This city has been too soft for too long on this sort of antisocial behaviour and has encouraged these people to come here and do what they do.

"I was born and raised here but my husband and I are now leaving for the West Country. We went to St Peter's Church in Brighton recently and had to climb over drinkers as we walked up the steps. We have had enough."

The Brighton and Hove City Council ban was introduced last month but police spent the first four weeks warning drinkers before today's action.

The ban means anyone drinking in public and acting antisocially could be arrested and fined up to £500. Drink may be confiscated and anyone refusing to hand it over to police can be arrested.

Mr Siggs said: "No one was arrested today and there were no serious problems. I'm pleased with progress so far but these are early days.

"At least Norfolk Square was clear of drink today. We can't guarantee that will be the case 24 hours a day, seven days a week but we will be enforcing this robustly."

Inspector Paul Smith said: "We have new powers of arrest but we did not need to use them today. Our only aim is to improve the area and environment for everyone."

A resident said: "All this will do is shove it elsewhere. At least it won't be so bad in our square from now on. We've had years of it. It's someone else's turn."