Castle Circus is the site of Torquay Town Hall

Castle Circus in Torquay, home to the town hall, has been taken over by drug dealers and drunks who have started to congregate there in the last year.

The police have got together with the council, drugs workers and the hostels for the homeless to try and come up with some solutions to the problem.

A survey of the public is also to be carried out to find out what people who work in the area think can be done to improve the situation.

Where we can arrest somebody for an offence, we will Sergeant Ian Curson

Local businesses in the area say they are fed up with the situation after being threatened. Locals and tourists have also said they now avoid the circus.

Paul Thornton, who owns Chaplins pub, said: "There's bad language, people being violent and aggressive are scaring off customers and, two or three times a week, they threaten that they're going to burn my pub down."

The police say they need to clear Castle Circus of anti-social elements.

Sergeant Ian Curson said: "Zero tolerance is one part of an initial strategy to tackle what has become quite a big problem for us and all those who work and use the area.

"It means, where we can arrest somebody for an offence, we will because the public has spoken."

However, they realise though that simply moving people on does not solve the problem.

Council community safety coordinator Alison Parnell said the first thing they are going to do is find out more about the problem.

Alison Parnell said: "I don't think we know what all the answers are going to be yet.

"That is why we're going to be doing a public survey to ask people who work and use it what their opinions and experiences are and what we can do to ensure we tackle those issues."

Increased police patrols in the last week have, so far, seen a decrease in those causing the problems in the circus.