PUB landlords are calling time on troublemakers thanks to a network aimed at banning thugs and lager louts from their area.

The Bexleyheath Pub Safe scheme was officially launched on Tuesday after a three-month warm-up.

Seventeen pubs and bars in the Broadway have already signed up to the project.

They are linked to the borough’s CCTV operators, Bexley police and street pastors via radio.

A national database can tell them in moments if a person causing or likely to cause trouble is a known offender in another part of Kent or the UK.

Speaking at the launch, at the Zero Bar, Terence Fitzgerald, manager of The Wrong Un pub, warned yobs that their time was up.

He said: “We hope eventually everyone who comes up to Bexleyheath and causes trouble or is anti-social will have to think twice because they’re not going to get into any venue.”

He said that the scheme had helped him deal with four men who looked like they were going to cause trouble.

When they were turfed out of The Wrong Un, Mr Fitzgerald alerted other members of the scheme to the men’s presence and they were turned away from RSVP in the town centre when they tried to enter.

Ch Supt Tony Dawson, borough commander of Bexley police, said the trade was helping itself to sort out its problems. He said: “You have shown that you lead by example and we thank you for that.”

He also praised the teams of street pastors, volunteers from churches in the borough who patrol the streets on busy evenings to difuse trouble between groups of people out drinking.

Pub Safe aims to bring all licensees in Bexleyheath together under one umbrella and could possibly be expanded into Crayford and Dartford in the future.