General Discussion
Party in the Park no more
Todays Gazzette the Royal British Legion are pulling the plug on this annual event due to the drunken behaviour of 2-300 teenagers who caused problems around the Lawn. The Police have stipulated "Draconian" measures if they wish to continue next year.
As a family we were there, there was a little trouble down the bottom end which the police controlled the event wasn't disrupted at all, what a shame.
Maybe it was the DBS or the DDS or the TDS gangs that are on this forum pouting their chests that have ruined a great event.
I think 2-300 drunken teenagers around the lawn is somewhat unrealistic. If this is the position the wooden tops take over a small group of people getting drunk. Then we better shutdown Dawlish for the forseeable future. What a load of old guff! What police? you're lucky if you see a couple of PCSO's hidden in their shop on the Lawn or shooting past in their new car.
Seemed ok to me. Had a good time, but I guess didnt stay till the end so I didnt see any problems. Amazing to me that the police are imposing draconian rules. This doesnt seem to apply to the pubs in Dawlish when they are open till 2/3 am on Friday and saturday and you get punters in the streets singing, beeping cars, swearing and fighting when they kick out? This happens nearly every weekend and no one in licensing or police seem overly concerned?
I thought the police were paid to do a job, like making a couple of arrests if things get a bit out of hand. Seems they now have the power to dictate what peole can do in their own town and more to the point on a area of land actually owned by the people of Dawlish.
The real police issue here is if these so called teenagers were under eighteen. Where did they get the booze from and why is action not being taken against those responsible for supplying it to them.
As I recall I cannot remember seeing a gang of 200-300 drunken teenagers maybe 15-20 at the most, and in any case if the police cannot do their job then they are not fit for purpose and the chief constable needs to explain why to the people who pay their wages.
Hiding on motorway bridges in £80,000 BMWs in order to collect government stealth tax is not effective policing. On the ground mixing with the people at community events is, as for PCSOs, chocolate fire guards comes to mind
Well said FredBassett! At the Events committee meeting on Tuesday this week I suggested that we ask for evidence of the supposed level of trouble and the numbers involved because no one else seems to be aware of the scale of disturbance the police claim. This is being taken forward.
Is it simply the case that the police don't have the budget and numbers to police properly anymore?
Hence, is the only realistic option left open to them to make a case to simply stop the event at source one way or another?
@ Fred
It wasnt one crowd of 200-300 drunken youths, but smaller groups of 20-30 totalling 200-300 in all.
If a crowd of youths borded a train at Torquay for instance, with tickets for Dawlish, and all carrying bags of booze, then why wasnt the authorities informed so that the police met them at Dawlish station and then confiscated it? Not rocket science, is it.
It is of my opinion that the Police do not want things like PITP to happen in DAwlish as they cant be bothered to do such things like I have just mentioned and blame it on the RBL.
An easy cop (no pun intended) out.