A COMMUNITY group wants to move "intimidating" street drinkers into a segregated zone.

Rushey Green safer neighbourhood ward panel says drinkers who gather on a grassy patch in Lewisham High Street near Lewisham Hospital are "an eyesore" and a "health hazard".

It wants the 20 to 60 drinkers moved to an area outside the Central Clinic in Rushey Green, Catford - a facility used by many of them to curb their drug and alcohol addictions.

Chairman of the ward panel, James Dobson, said: "They cause a health hazard to themselves and other members of the public as they tend to urinate all over the place and sometimes get into fights.

"They can be a bit of an eyesore and are particularly intimidating to women and children.

"But if the drinkers had a specific area which was their own, they could be controlled more easily. There is a particular green square outside the clinic which has black railings.

"Our vision is the area could have cheap circular toilets like the corrugated iron open-air urinals in France.

"Social workers would know exactly where to find them and the public would feel safer knowing the drinkers were part of a controlled social experiment."

The stretch of land between Lewisham station and Rushey Green is currently a Lewisham Council drinking control zone, but Mr Dobson wants to label the green square a "tolerate zone".

He added: "You have to approach the problem sensibly. The drinkers will always find somewhere to drink.

"Simply dispersing them, moving them along or confiscating their drink doesn't solve the problem. It just moves it somewhere else."

When asked if he envisioned the area being policed, he replied: "The area can already be very well observed. There is CCTV there already, but to a certain extent I think it would be self-policed.

"I would expect the drinkers' behaviour to improve as they would recognise that they have been given their own special area."

The issue will be discussed at a Lewisham Council mayor and cabinet meeting on July 14.

Meanwhile, Lewisham Hospital chief executive Tim Higginson said: "We are very keen to work with our partners in the borough to keep public areas safe and secure, including the public areas to the front of Lewisham Hospital, which are used by our patients and staff."