Lancashire Police respond to criticism over illegal rave at Burnley's Crown Point
Lancashire Police have responded to criticism from residents they did not act swiftly enough to break up an illegal rave in a rural area of the county.
Police were inundated with complaints about noise during the rave at Burnley’s Crown Point last Saturday evening.
Posting on social media, several residents said police took hours to respond to the calls and did not take action to shut the rave down when they arrived at the site.
A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: “We attended land near to Crown Point Ruins off Crown Point Road, Burnley, on Saturday evening (6th September) following reports of an illegal rave.
“Our officers attended the scene, carried out an assessment and it was deemed that it was not proportionate to take any action at that time.”
The spokesman went on to say that, after receiving further information, officers re-attended on Sunday morning and, due to a change in circumstances, including a report of an assault, drug use and people stumbling into the road, the decision was made to invoke powers under section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 to direct people to leave the woodland.
Under this act it is an offence to return to the land within seven days for anyone issued with a notice, and also an offence for any other people to attend the land within 24 hours knowing that a direction has been issued.
The spokesman added:“We have listened to residents concerns and take reports of anti social behaviour such as this seriously.
“Our local communities are our eyes and ears and we will always act on information we receive from them in order to enforce the law in an appropriate and proportionate manner.”