AN ALCOHOL-FREE zone in Woolwich will be expanded to tackle street drinkers.

Councillors are expected to approve the proposals for a ban on anti-social public drinking at a Woolwich and Thamesmead area planning and environment committee meeting at the Town Hall, Wellington Street, Woolwich, at 6.30pm tonight.

An initial, more restricted area was designated two years ago in the town centre, with General Gordon Square being successfully reclaimed by residents and workers.

But proposals were drawn up for an expanded drinking control zone after complaints nuisance drinkers had merely moved outside the original zone.

Woolwich Sector Inspector Jim Moore says a "reasonable ban" rather than the existing "token ban" will be more effective for Woolwich as a whole.

He said: "The original ban was set too close to the town centre so drinkers could just step over one street and continue their drinking.

"This created new drinking enclaves, such as outside the Anglesea Arms, leading to resentment from some of the locals."

Council housing manager Gill Cooney says the existing zone has displaced the problems previously experienced in the town centre to surrounding residential estates.

She said: "I have received numerous complaints from residents concerning issues of harassment, to the extent where many refuse to allow their children out of the property unaccompanied."

If approved, the expanded zone will begin on December 8 and mean street drinkers inside that area could have cans or bottles confiscated and be given details of alcohol-recovery services.

Any street drinker who causes a disturbance, or who regularly flouts the law, could also be arrested or fined up to £500 by police.

The boundary of the proposed zone begins at the river frontage, skirts the Arsenal, runs up Burrage Road, includes Plumstead Common Road, Nightingale Place and Grand Depot Road, runs west along Artillery Place and up Frances Street, crosses Woolwich Church Street and extends back to the river.