Dartmouth's drink fuelled regatta violence could force police to impose a town centre booze ban which would spill over onto the music and food festivals.

At the moment by-laws which ban open air drinking in Dart-mouth town centre are deliberately not enforced during the events.

But last week police revealed that of the 12 incidents of violence in Dartmouth this Sept-ember, 11 were linked to Dartmouth's regatta.

Police now plan to hold talks with representatives from the regatta, food and music festivals to try and find ways of curbing the alcohol fuelled violence. And Dartmouth's police boss Insp Andy Tomlinson revealed that one option would be to enforce the drinks by-law barring boozing outside licensed premises in the town centre.

He said: 'We will be looking at options concerning how we can address that around the control, sale and consumption of alcohol.

'It got to the point where too many people had consumed too much alcohol. We want to look at he mechanics of ensuring that people can enjoy the event without it becoming somewhere not comfortable for people to be.'

He said at past regatta concerns had centred on underage drinking but this year he problem had been about adult drinking.

He added; 'People do not suddenly become drunk at 9pm and cause problems. They will have been drinking throughout the day.'

He said that one option was to impose the outside drinking restrictions.

But he warned that it would be difficult to just pinpoint the regatta and that it could have to include both the music and food festivals. He said the solutions could also involve other options such as allowing designated areas for drinking.

'The aim is for it to be a fun event. Unfortunately there may have to be some restrictions, but the overall aim is to ensure it is a fun family event.'

Insp Tomlinson's comments came following a regatta 'wash up meeting' held last week involving all the various authorities – including the police, ambulance, fire service coastguard, regatta officers and council representatives form South hams, Devon County and Totnes Town. Regatta committee chairman Hilary Bastone stressed: 'It is ours and the police's intention to try and ensure that regatta is a family friendly event for everyone.

'Overall, the majority of people this year thoroughly enjoyed regatta and the number of congratulatory comments that I and my colleagues have received have been incredible.'

But he admitted: 'Obviously with the number of drink fuelled incidents late on the Saturday night of regatta, alcohol will have been one of the issues that was discussed although the remedies are not necessarily in the regatta committee's hands.'

He said that the police want to sit down with both the regatta committee and the music festival representatives to 'have a chat about festivals in general'.