Pubs and clubs in binge-drinking hotspots will be forced to pay at least £100 a week to cover the costs of policing under draft legislation published by the Government today.

The Violent Crime Reduction Bill, part of a packed legislative agenda for the first session of Labour's third term in power, will also ban the production or sale of replica firearms that could be mistaken for the real thing, and will tighten up the law on the sale of knives and air guns.

Its most controversial measure, however, will the creation of Alcohol Disorder Zones or ADZs, under which licensed premises will be made to contribute to the cost of policing troublesome areas. Police will also be able to impose individual Drinking Banning Orders, to bar drunken troublemakers from specific areas for up to two years.

Hazel Blears, a Home Office minister, said that an area would have to go through a process lasting around three months before it could be designated an ADZ. Police and the local authority would need evidence of problems with alcohol-related disorder, and after deciding they wanted to designate an area, businesses and residents in the affected area would have 28 days to give their opinions.

Then there would be an eight-week period when an action plan was drawn up, and only if it was acted on in that time would the ADZ then be brought in. "During that period they have got to show that there is a substantial compliance with the points in the plan," Ms Blears said. "There’s got to be some pretty significant sense that they are getting on with it."

The drinks industry has already attacked the ADZ proposal as likely to do more harm than good, by attracting hardened drinkers or troublemakers and putting off those who just want a night out.

But Ms Blears said ADZs would be used only as a last resort. "It’s about trying to prevent this alcohol disorder happening," she said. "It’s certainly not about accommodating it and having zones up and down the country where you can go and behave like this. It’s exactly the opposite, which is that if you don’t get your house in order, then this is going to happen to you.

"I think it’s a real incentive for people to come together and say they’re going to do something collectively about the problems in that area. In a way, it’s legislation you don’t want to use."

Other measures in the Bill include a ban on making or selling replica firearms that could be mistaken for real guns; tougher manufacturing standards, so that imitation guns could not be converted to fire live ammunition; and an increase in the age limit for buying an air weapon from 17 to 18.

Senior police officers said that any move to take replica firearms off the streets would benefit both officers and the public.

Chief Superintendent Paul Robinson, head of Scotland Yard’s special firearms operational command unit, said: "It is often almost impossible to tell the difference between a real gun and a replica. For someone walking down a street, all they know is someone is waving a firearm at them. Police officers face exactly the same situation and have to make split-second decisions on how to act."

The age limit for buying knives will also be raised under the Bill from 16 to 18, and headteachers will be given the authority to order that pupils be searched for knives or other weapons - an idea that was dismissed as unworkable by the teachers themselves.

"This is fraught with all sorts of difficulties," said John White, president of the National Association of Head Teachers. "Headteachers are not the right people to be searching young people. We have a police force for that.

"Heads manhandling pupils could fall foul of the Human Rights Act or be prosecuted for assault. It's just a minefield."

Other measures against binge-drinking will include the individual banning orders and a new police power to ban the sale of alcohol at a licensed premise for up to 48 hours as a punishment for selling alcohol to under-18s.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Donor organ allowed child’s own heart to heal
• Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
• Brüno toned down for 15 rating