Glastonbury 2003: the Police report

Mendip District Council's Regulatory Board - who are responsible for granting the licence - met two weeks ago to consider a reports from Council officers and other involved agencies on the running of Glastonbury Festival 2003. The reports from this meeting have been published.

The Police Report says that they were successful in stopping or shutting down raves in the area, and this aspect is deemed a success. It's interesting to note that the Festival helped fund these operations, showing the extent that the Festival is prepared to go to in helping deal with problems associated with the event, but largely outside of its control.

The report goes on that "whatever could be done to design out the crime was done in advance of the festival", to reduce the problems experienced in previous years by local residents. It states that "It is worthy of record that the vast majority of work undertaken between the police and private security provided a high quality service to people at the festival, and living in the villages", which is good news for the Festival's future, as this was a big issue in the granting of a licence for 2003.

After the Festival there were some problems with traffic flow - blamed on the non-sequencing of the temporary traffic lights, and potential problems at Castle Cary railway station where there weren't a sufficient number of trains to transport away those using this service quickly enough.

Of the reported crimes, only 9% occured off-site. All crime types were significantly down apart from drug offences, which had a significant rise. However, as the police had less of other incidents to deal with, it's quite possible that this was merely greater detection. The report states that the number of medical referals for drugs was well down on 2002, which seems to at least indicate that in the main people were treating their drug of choice with respect.

Arrests were also down, from 244 in 2002 to 176 in 2003, of which 52% were for drug offences. The largest number of those arrested - 22% - were from the Merseyside area. The report goes on to make recommendations for the future, to try and further reduce the number of crimes.

In conclusion, it states

The reduction in crime, and increase in re-assurance for the local communities is believed to be a reflection of the inter-party planning process, and efforts towards continual improvement.

At peak, it is reported that the numbers of people on site reached 150,000. Officers raised doubt on whether this number could be safely increased, or indeed whether the facilities to accommodate extra people could be provided.

That final paragraph appears to indicate that no increase in numbers can be expected for 2004.

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