TALKS are to be held between police and nightclub owners to address the “appalling” level of drugs and negative image of Clacton depicted on a TV documentary.

Peter Halliday, leader of Tendring Council, has hit out at the Channel 4 show Bouncers, which followed door staff at the Liquor Lounge, in Clacton.

Bouncers is a three-part series which focuses on doormen in Colchester’s Queen Street and in Clacton.

The last in the series will be aired tonight on Channel 4.

It will feature Colchester’s Silk Road bar doorman Curtis, battle to keep control on the club alongside the police, while bouncers in Clacton will gear up for a long, hot summer.

One episode showed a fight in the Liquor Lounge and drugs being confiscated.

He said: “A lot of the comments people made about Bouncers are right. It portrayed Clacton in a negative light.

“I don’t believe that programme is helping any of us.”

He said he wants a meeting with the licensee of the Liquor Lounge and Chief Insp Cat Barrie.

Mr Halliday added: “I was appalled at the amount of drugs being confiscated on that door.

“Are the police being told about these drugs or not? These people should be arrested.”

Mr Halliday added the programme was not a realistic view of the town and branded it as “cheap TV”, adding: “The nighttime economy across the country has its own issues and the police are trying to deal with that.

“But the problems I watched on the television are no different to what it was like when I was 20 and out in nightclubs.

“In fact, it was far, far worse back then. The violence definitely was worse. The difference was theyweren’t making a television programme about it.

“The town is not how it is portrayed in that programme.”

A Channel 4 spokesman said: “Bouncers is a documentary series which offers a fair and balanced portrait of Britain’s night life through the eyes of door staff, the people best positioned to witness it first hand.

“Bouncers gave a candid view of people out looking to have a good time, the consequences and the incidents that bouncers encounter.

“Some of the material in the series is shocking, but it also features warm and insightful stories, exploring what’s behind people’s behaviour.”