Read this in the daily mail today (shock horror yes i read the daily mail!)
Anyway made me laugh!!
A police force has sparked fury by admitting it is powerless to break up illegal raves – because it’s too dark when the party is in full swing.
Chief Inspector Gill Ellis, of Kent Police, blamed the lack of action on “health and safety” regulations when tackled by locals whose lives are blighted by the noisy all-night drug-fests in a wooded property around Sevenoaks.
Chief Supt Ellis told a meeting of concerned residents that it was not safe to disperse revellers in remote locations when it was dark – insisting safety regulations meant officers had to wait until sunrise to break up the bashes.
And the force said it could be dangerous to disperse ravers because they may get into their cars to drive home while still high on drink and drugs.
But one district councillor pointed out a bash in March, which took place at Longspring Woods near the village of Shoreham, had been allowed to go on until 1pm the following afternoon – keeping villagers awake all night.
People living in surrounding villages, many of them elderly, had tackled police over the problem because they were fed up with ear-splitting dance music and open drug taking.
Chief Supt Ellis told the meeting: “We will wait until daylight hours for reasons of health and safety before making interventions.”
But baffled Sevenoaks district councillor Colin Dibsdall said a rave in March had not been dispersed until after lunch the day after it began.
He said today: “I would have thought once daylight came they could have gone into the site and turned it down or off.”
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Officers will have to wait until sunrise to break up the bashes
Cllr Phil Hobson, an IT consultant in his early 50s, said: “It’s ridiculous that a rave would be allowed to go on all night and into the afternoon.
“Several residents were calling our local police contact, but a number of them could not even get through. As a result the police have logged about six calls, but I know there were plenty more.
“The biggest problem is lack of sleep. On that night there were probably about 500 people who were kept awake.
“There about 1,000 dwellings in the vicinity that could be effected at any given time, depending on the direction of the wind.
“What the police told us is if a rave is happening and they don’t know about it significantly in advance they can’t get the man power there to stop it.
“I think it is disgusting. The police are there to catch criminals and stop illegal activity.
“We know some people came from as far away as Somerset which means that they must have had several hours’ notice about the rave.
“So why then, with so called ‘Intelligence Led Policing’ which has replaced officers on the street, are they not able to find out about them?
“The ravers sometimes leave a mess of rubbish on the property, which is believed to be owned by a landlord who lives somewhere else in the country.
“The wood is close to the M25 – which means about 15 million people live within an hour and a half’s drive away.”
Pensioner Beryl Carman, 61, said: “All night it is just ‘boom, boom, boom’. We don’t even live that close to the woods and we can hear the music loud and clear.
“I have lived her for 29 years – but we have only had this problem for the last few. We have had quite enough of it.”
Retired engineer Clive Evans, 66, said: “We couldn’t believe what the police came out with – I’ve never heard so much rubbish in all my life.
“How on earth can fully trained police officers be worried about forcing a bunch of hippies and druggies to go home? “What sort of thing did they expect to have to do when they signed up for the police force?”
