Massive revamp for Leicester Square

Leicester Square is to undergo its biggest transformation in 10 years as part of a facelift for the West End.

The first phase will see the area - blighted by drunken late-night revellers and street crime - covered by a £1.2 million network of CCTV cameras being introduced across the district.

The second part of the scheme will see it take on a more Continental appearance, with restaurants encouraged to have more outdoor tables and to serve beyond 11pm.

Police will be given the power to seize cans and bottles from drinkers and to force homeless people to move on under reforms being prepared by Westminster council.

They will be helped by 12 council wardens, who will deal with low-level troublemakers. Buskers and unlicensed street traders are already being removed, along with henna tattooists who ply their trade on the pavements. They were forced out last Wednesday and all now face being banned from the area under a court injunction.

Leicester Square, which has seven cinemas that host nearly 50 premieres a year, will be promoted as "the home of cinema in Britain".

It will host public art displays and free screenings of children's films under the plans due to be approved by Westminster council next week. Details of the transformation emerge four months after council leader Simon Milton spoke of the "anarchy" that reigns in the West End after dark.

He said the area was filled with hundreds of thousands of drunk people at the weekend, drug dealing took place openly on the streets and guns and violence were now "common".

By comparison, he hopes the plans will "once again make Leicester Square the jewel in Westminster's crown".

The CCTV scheme will be launched on Thursday with 33 cameras monitoring Leicester Square, Regent Street, Covent Garden, Soho, Chinatown and Piccadilly. If the Continental-style reforms are successful, council leaders plan to extend them across the rest of the West End.

The CCTV scheme is funded by the Home Office and is a joint initiative of the Metropolitan Police and the council, which will pay the £500,000 annual running costs along with key local businesses.

Home Office statistics show there were 2,764 robberies in Westminster last year, up more than 15 per cent on the previous year. Violent crimes were up three per cent to 8,732.