Troublemakers are being shown the door as city centre licensees link up to make pubs and clubs safer.

Three men have recently been banned from all licensed premises in the centre of Bradford as the Night Watch scheme starts to bite.

The initiative, in which licensees work together with the support of police, started last year but is gathering pace.

There are now between 20 and 30 members, from pubs, bars and nightclubs, who meet monthly and are in regular contact when problems occur.

Yesterday, photographs of the three banned men were issued to members so they can recognise them if they try to get served. One of them, a 22-year-old Bradford man, has been barred for life after allegedly assaulting a licensee.

A 23-year-old from Bradford, a prolific shoplifter who annoyed customers, tried to sell stolen goods and do drug deals, has been banned for five years.

And a 36-year-old Bradford man has been barred for 12 months after he was arrested for fighting on licensed premises.

Night Watch's deputy chairman, Paul Corke, of the Shoulder of Mutton in Kirkgate, said the scheme had taken off in the last couple of months.

He said: "We are having an effect on the type of behaviour we don't want to see. People are starting to realise that they are not going to get barred from just one pub, but from all of them. It calms them down very quickly."

Mr Corke said when Nottingham Forest played Bradford City recently, members distributed photos of Bradford's hooligan Ointment Gang so they could be recognised.

"If somebody causes problems we phone round each other to alert everybody. It's a good way of keeping trouble away."

PC Sue Dawson, of Bradford South Police's licensing unit, said: "Night Watch is fantastic and is working. Everybody is getting together and talking to each other for the first time in years."

She said the scheme was run by the licensees with help from the police.

"If they have a customer they know has been arrested they will come to me to find out what they were arrested for. They can then make decisions about what to do in terms of banning them. But all the decisions are taken by the licensees.

"If someone is banned I serve them with a statutory letter to inform them. They have no excuses if they defy the ban. If they do, magistrates can issue an Anti-Social Behaviour Order which would ban them from the city centre completely."

Among the issues discussed yesterday was the Best Bar None scheme which is now being introduced in Bradford. Licensed premises are awarded plaques and certificates to display, showing they are reputable, well-run businesses, if they pass assessments made by the fire brigade, police and the Council.

e-mail: steve.wright @bradford.newsquest.co.uk