Street-drinking bans in east Oxford have had mixed success, with groups of drunks still intimidating passers-by, councillors heard.

Sophia Bartleet told fellow members of Oxford City Council's east area committee that she witnessed a distressing incident in the park off Manzil Way on June 18.

The St Clement's ward councillor, who lives in east Oxford, said: "I saw a group of mothers being chased off verbally by a group of boozers.

"I have a small child so I use the park quite a lot. Recently, there has been a group consistently using it. It would be very distressing if the use of the playground was diminished because people were afraid to go there."

But Mark Norman, treasurer of the East Oxford Adventure Play Association, which led the project to revamp the park and reclaim it from drug users, said the nuisance element was "blown out of proportion".

The meeting was told that the street-drinking bans in Manzil Way and part of Cowley Road had been hailed a success by police and residents.

City and county councillor Craig Simmons praised police for their tough enforcement of the ban. "It seems to have tided up the area generally quite well and there's much less anti-social activity, especially during the day. I was drinking ginger beer there the other day and I was stopped by police. Good on them for being so dilligent," he said.

He said, however, that the problem might have been moved to outside the alcohol-free zone.

Sgt Jim O'Ryan, of Oxford police, admitted: "There has been some displacement, mainly around off-licences where people cause problems. We are looking at extending it to encompass these premises."