Residents are ready to reclaim their streets after seeing it fall into the hands of street drinkers.

Home owners in Streatham south, especially those who live in Greyhound Lane and Streatham Vale, are petitioning police to introduce an alcohol saturation zone to combat the problem.

Drinkers have been seen defecating and being sick in people’s gardens, urinating on front doors, and banging into people’s cars, residents claim.

They added that, as well as confiscating drink from troublemakers, there should also be a time limit on when off-licences can sell booze.

Sue Watson, 55, of Buckley Road, who also runs a property service on Greyhound Lane, said the problem had got worse with time.

She said: “It is pretty, pretty grim down here. They start drinking at about 4.30pm and go on from there. “I am getting fed up with it. They urinate through my door, they urinate in my garden and I think it is disgraceful.

“It is bad down here and I am watching out my window now and there are people already buying booze from the shop. It is 9am.

“People don’t want to walk around here anymore as people don’t want to see what is going on. I came home at 6.15pm one night and people were so drunk they were falling into people’s cars."

Ben Everitt, chairman of the St Leonards Safer Neighbourhood Panel, said the problem was common in other areas of Streatham as well. He said that a group of residents in the Streatham Green area had set up a friends’ group to reclaim the area for the community rather than leaving it in the hands of street drinkers.

Mr Everitt, 32, also said it was not right that residents should feel intimidated in their own area. He said: “It is a bit of a mess at the moment. We are making progress and there are laws now which allow the council to act on shops that misuse their license. Which is good news.

"We need to publicise when these licensing application go in so residents can protest against it.

“What we need to stop is people being able to drink all day and a saturation zone would help that.”

Streatham South Safer Neighbourhood Team Sergeant Mark Brindley said police recognised there was a problem.

He said: “Police work very closely with trading standards to encourage premises to sign up to responsible retail agreements. We monitor these closely to ensure that there are no breaches.”

Anyone wishing to report an incident should call police on 020 8721 2628.