BUSINESS owners voiced their frustration at “intolerable” street drinking and antisocial behaviour “chaos” in the city at a meeting on Thursday.

Salisbury’s police chief Inspector Pete Sparrow vowed to do everything he could to tackle the problem, but said a lack of police in the city and the distance to the nearest custody unit were “significant issues” that made arresting those responsible a problem.

He warned that Sainsbury’s car park could become “a cardboard shanty town again” if nothing was done.

Keith Smith from OSO Boutique called on the council to scrap the benches in the Cheese Market – the “hub of activity” for street drinking.

“It’s chaos, “ he said. “Most days out there it’s disgusting.We have got to take action now.”

But Steve Godwin from Salisbury BID said removing benches in a tourist city was “not very viable”, while Andy Rhind-Tutt, president of Salisbury Chamber of Commerce, said it would “just move the problem”.

Phil Downer of Five Rivers Recruitment in Queen Street complained of street drinkers “swearing and shouting obscenities” outside his office and his “total frustration” at the apparent lack of support.

“The language was so intolerable I had to send two female members of staff home at 3.30pm,” he said.

“Something needs to be done quickly or we will see businesses leaving the city.”

Adam Molyneux-Downs, landlord of the Market Inn, said: “We have just got to move them on like other cities do.”

Insp Sparrow said CCTV would help gather evidence of public order offences so police could charge those responsible.

But he said: “We are not going to have that for the summer. We need to be realistic about it. We need to find other ways of dealing with it now.

He spoke of a “huge recruitment drive” for special constables - volunteers with he same powers as regular PCs.

But there were currently not enough officers to disperse groups of up to 15 street drinkers at a time, he said, with Salisbury police running at around half strength in terms of deployable officers.

“At the moment our staffing is very very low.

“We are all covering lots of vacancies. My officers are all working a lot of overtime and rest days and trying to fill the gap.

“We are having to say to officers ‘you have worked too many hours and you cannot keep going at this pace’.”

Cllr Sven Hocking said he had heard that Wiltshire Council was sending homeless people to Salisbury from other towns to use facilities such as Alabare and Salisbury Trust for the Homeless.

He said: “When people rock up at Trowbridge, or in Chippenham or in Devizes, they go to the local council offices there who buy them a one-way ticket to Salisbury because we have a fantastic infrastructure here to support their lifestyle of choice.”

But Wiltshire Council denied this.

A spokesman said: “We do not give people one-way tickets to Salisbury when they present to us as homeless.

“We always work with our partners to do everything we can to house them as quickly as possible. This includes a comprehensive assessment of their circumstances to find the most appropriate housing solution for them.”

Cllr Hocking also called for “much more robust” enforcement of street drinking during the day time.

"We are spending a colossal amount of money as a council cleaning the city up, trying to make it tourist friendly," he said.

“Repeat customers are key to everything.

“If people come in and the first thing they experience is people fighting in the market place they are not going to come back.

“They are not going to tell their friends to come into the city either. We have got quite a big problem on our doorstep right now.”