NEW fixed penalty fines are proving a major boost to policing in the Vale of Evesham.

Inspector Steve Brooker, who is in charge of policing in the Wychavon area, has welcomed the £80 and £50 on-the-spot fines introduced just before Christmas.

"It takes about 15 minutes to issue an on the spot fine whereas an arrest takes two officers off the streets for up to four hours," said Inspector Brooker.

"This frees up time for front line policing instead of bureaucratic form filling.

"It allows us the resources to conduct higher profile policing which is reassuring for law-abiding people and licensees.

"We have also found that people who are not behaving themselves seem surprisingly willing to accept the fines because they see it as justice at the time instead of waiting weeks or months to go to court."

Five fixed penalty fines were imposed in Evesham throughout the holiday period and nine throughout Wychavon.

The fines deal with disorder often caused by drink but are not applied to more serious offences where violence is involved.

"We arrested 16 people in Evesham over the holiday period. Many of these involved alcohol-related violence and a significant proportion were domestic," said Inspector Brooker.

There were three arrests for drink-driving in Evesham.

"We visited 98 licences premises and people do seem to be being more responsible.

"In a party of people there was usually a driver who kept to soft drinks while there seemed to be a lot of people using taxis."

Police are pledged to carry on the approach adopted over the festive season.

"We shall continue to use fixed penalty fines and high profile policing where appropriate," added Inspector Brooker.

The success in the Vale of Evesham was reflected throughout the West Mercia force area.

For the first time less than half the people arrested over the Christmas and New Year holiday period for drink driving in the West Mercia area were under 30.

Forty-seven per cent of arrested drivers were aged 17-30 compared with 58 per cent the previous year.

"This shows that we were successful in getting across to this age group which is traditionally the hardest to get through to with a don't drink and drive message," said Carl Baldacchino, of West Mercia police.

Altogether, 56 drivers were arrested by West Mercia police over the Christmas and New Year holiday for drinking-driving.

This was 4.6 per cent of the total number of tests, compared with nearly nine per cent last year.

Despite the reduction in drink-driving there was, however, a big increase in the number of traffic accidents - 299 compared with 187 the year before.

"This does appear to be an unusual statistic and we are investigating to see if there is any particular reason for this situation," added Mr Baldacchino.

As well as drink-driving, there was a reduction in other alcohol-related offences with 170 arrests and 32 fixed penalty notices issued.

There were 46 cases where under-age drinkers had alcohol confiscated.

In Gloucestershire, more than 2,000 breath tests were carried out between December 18 and January 2 with 46 people failing or refusing to provide a sample.

Of these 170 were in the Cotswold division with nine positive results or failures. In Warwickshire 39 drivers - nine per cent of those tested - either proved positive or failed to give a specimen.