|
Police are to get tough on groups of underage drinkers who have started to assemble for beach parties along the Hordle Cliffs and Milford on Sea beaches.
The crackdown follows an incident on Saturday, May 10, when more than 50 teenagers gathered on the beach where they consumed large quantities of alcohol. They then left empty alcohol containers, including broken bottles, strewn across the beach after their bout of binge drinking.
Officers recovered two bin bags full of discarded alcohol containers and seized 21 cans of lager, six bottles of lager, one bottle of wine, one bottle of Martini, one bottle of Bacardi Breezer, one bottle of Vodka and a bottle of Whisky. A similar quantity of alcohol was disposed of at the scene.
The wholly inappropriate behaviour of these youths led to families being forced to flee the beach to prevent them from being subjected to their boisterous and unacceptable conduct and abusive language.
Most disturbing of all for the officers deployed to deal with the incident was to learn that the majority of the youths were dropped off and collected by their parents.
As a result of this incident, officers will be paying closer attention to beach areas at weekends and in the evenings to prevent a reoccurrence. Parents are also being written to, reminding them of their parental responsibility, the associated health issues linked to underage binge drinking and how they are breaking the law by purchasing alcohol for anyone under 18.
Local Safer Neighbourhoods officer PC Del Jones said: "I have witnessed this type of behaviour many times in the past. If left unchecked it often leads to damage to property, public disorder and in some cases injury to the young people either through over indulgence of alcohol, or through alcohol fuelled physical assaults. We do not wish to stop young people enjoying themselves, but, gatherings of this size and nature will not be tolerated and robust police action will be taken to deal with any similar incidents in future."
The officer had this personal message for parents: "When your child is not with you I would ask you to consider the following questions. ‘Where are they?' ‘Who are they with?' ‘What are they doing?' And when they get home, ‘Have they been drinking?' After all they are your responsibility and it is only with the cooperation of parents and guardians that we can all hope to successfully tackle the issue of anti-social behaviour." News Source: http://www.hampshire.police.uk/ |
