THE prime minister’s controversial “respect czar”, Louise Casey, is urging him to ban drinking on commuter trains and other public transport.

She is “strongly supported” by the police, according to a confidential government paper on tackling anti-social behaviour.

A rise in alcohol-related disorder on trains and buses late at night has prompted the proposal. Merseyside MPs have called for £100 fines for consuming alcohol on a local rail line where it was found that more than half of 171 reported anti-social incidents in six months were alcohol-related.

But commuters who enjoy a quiet drink on the train home would also be banned from relaxing with a glass of wine or gin and tonic.

The crackdown is one of several “respect” proposals arising from a meeting between Tony Blair and Casey’s team at Chequers in August.

Blair’s attitude to the proposed ban is not known, but the fact that it is being carried forward for further consideration while other ideas have been killed off suggests that it has at least his tacit support.

The “Chequers paper”, a confidential list of 40 proposals discussed with the prime minister, reveals that Blair also considered introducing street breathalyser tests for binge drinkers and creating a new criminal offence of being “dangerously drunk”. These proposals have now been dropped.

The paper reveals that the alcohol ban on trains and buses is “strongly supported” by the British Transport police but has been resisted by some government advisers.

It recommends that the idea goes forward for further consideration, and it notes that new legislation will be required to introduce a ban.

The document outlines other plans:

Appointing anti-social behaviour (ASB) “sheriffs” to police troubled neighbourhoods.

The paper reveals that officials working for John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, are resisting several measures. Prescott’s department has already clashed with Downing Street over a request to give £30m to the respect programme, which Blair regards as a top priority for his final term in office.

The report confirms plans to let local councils confiscate the homes of persistent offenders who breach their Asbos, and to send problem families to “sin bins” for rehabilitation.

The plans have been drawn up by the respect task force, which is headed by Casey. The initial proposals which came out of the Chequers meeting have been updated, but the paper reflects that Casey has been given the clear backing of the prime minister to overrule Whitehall officials.

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