Cityside a 'no go' for police

The move comes after a recent statement said that the threat from dissident republicans was at its highest at anytime since the Omagh bomb in 1998.

It is believed that serving PSNI officers have been advised that it would not be in the interests of their personal safety to continue to use clubs, bars or restaurants on the west bank of the Foyle.

The last attacks in Londonderry occurred last autumn when the Real IRA targeted family members of two brothers, one of whom was still serving in the PSNI. On September 12, 2009, dissidents threw a pipe bomb through the window of a sister of the policemen at Kylemore Park and later that day a bomb exploded under a van outside the home of the officer's parents at Drumleck Drive in the Shantallow area of the city.

On November 8, 2007, the Real IRA attempted to murder Constable Jim Doherty as he sat in slow moving traffic in Londonderry's Bishop Street. Gunmen approached his car, one hitting him in the upper body with a shotgun blast-another came forward with a handgun to administer a final blow, but the weapon jammed.

Gun and bomb attacks have increased in Northern Ireland in recent months with PSNI stations in Armagh bearing the brunt of the activity.

DUP Alderman Joe Miller, currently head of the local District Policing Partnership and himself a former RUC officer told the Sentinel: "This is just a reminder of the way things used to be.

"If this is true then it is good advice to serving members of the police. In fact it is common sense. This is a retrograde step, where a handful of people are hell bent on dragging us back into the past.

"It is up to all members of society to reject these people and to pass on any information they have to the police."

Whilst a spokeswoman for the PSNI in Londonderry could not confirm that serving officers have been advised to stay out of the cityside a statement from the police said: "While we do not publicly discuss operational matters, it is a matter of public record that the level of dissident republican threat across the whole of Northern Ireland is at its highest for a number of years."