All night rave down our lane
Discussion
If someone decides to hold an all night rave on some land they own next door you assume that a call to the Old Bill would have it brought to a swift conclusion.
Google seems to think that between 11pm and 7.00am all should be calm in the land. I appreciate that once in a blue moon you might celebrate a little past that time but 7.00am the next day is surely bit late.
We had an incident recently :
Thames Valley Police were called by residents and they had a word with the organiser / land owner asking him to turn it down. By 12.30AM I was getting a bit irate so went round and had a chat myself. I had to show a bit of restraint at this point. There seemed a fairly simple solution involving a can of petrol and their generator but it doesn't take a genius to see how it would have ended. I get arrested, locked up in the cells and end up in court. As a decent upstanding citizen the full force of the law is able to act upon my person and totally unrelated acts such as my fortnight in Disneyland riding Dumbo the Flying Elephant become impossible.
So after the organiser informed me they were carrying on through the night I left. As luck would have it a Police van had arrived and I chatted to the officers. At this point they dropped the bombshell that they have no authority or ability to bring the noise to a end. They can ask the guy to turn it off but if he says no they must walk away. "It's a council matter" they told me. The organiser has by now arrived concerned that I said I was going to call the Police (how surprised was he when they were actually there !). We had a "conversation" mid way through which the Police said they had better things to do with their time and drove away leaving me with the organiser and his mate. I had to pull myself away and go back to my property somewhat miffed that Plod left me vulnerable.
South Bucks council have an emergency out of hours mobile number so I called it. That last call I made was at 3.30AM when the backing track to my video was booming away in the background. The lady on the end of the phone said there was nothing she could do. South Bucks have no out of hours environmental enforcement officers anymore. By this time I'd been on the internet and educated myself on legal matters appertaining to noise so informed her the council had a duty under the Noise Act to do something.
She said no mate, not since South Buckinghamshire council opted out of it they don't.
So there we were. We had tunes banging out all night, throughout the night and into the morning people turned up at out gate looking for the rave. One taxi driver kept sounding his horn to get us out of bed at 6 something in the morning. All in all not good news.
I spoke with the council and also got in touch with our Councillors. None of whom have done anything about the incident. It turns out that providing you own the land or have the land owners permission no one will stop you having an all night rave in South Bucks.
I was quite shocked. It's one of those situations where clearly someone is doing something wrong but no one stepped in to help us. The Police knew who was hosting the event, it was a peaceful enough event, I'm sure there were recreational drugs, there was a massive bonfire people were either drinking, dancing or chilling, it wasn't an angry mob that would have required a riot squad to disperse.
Have I been mugged off by Thames Valley Police or South Bucks council? Were there things they could and should have done?
Henry
Google seems to think that between 11pm and 7.00am all should be calm in the land. I appreciate that once in a blue moon you might celebrate a little past that time but 7.00am the next day is surely bit late.
We had an incident recently :
Thames Valley Police were called by residents and they had a word with the organiser / land owner asking him to turn it down. By 12.30AM I was getting a bit irate so went round and had a chat myself. I had to show a bit of restraint at this point. There seemed a fairly simple solution involving a can of petrol and their generator but it doesn't take a genius to see how it would have ended. I get arrested, locked up in the cells and end up in court. As a decent upstanding citizen the full force of the law is able to act upon my person and totally unrelated acts such as my fortnight in Disneyland riding Dumbo the Flying Elephant become impossible.
So after the organiser informed me they were carrying on through the night I left. As luck would have it a Police van had arrived and I chatted to the officers. At this point they dropped the bombshell that they have no authority or ability to bring the noise to a end. They can ask the guy to turn it off but if he says no they must walk away. "It's a council matter" they told me. The organiser has by now arrived concerned that I said I was going to call the Police (how surprised was he when they were actually there !). We had a "conversation" mid way through which the Police said they had better things to do with their time and drove away leaving me with the organiser and his mate. I had to pull myself away and go back to my property somewhat miffed that Plod left me vulnerable.
South Bucks council have an emergency out of hours mobile number so I called it. That last call I made was at 3.30AM when the backing track to my video was booming away in the background. The lady on the end of the phone said there was nothing she could do. South Bucks have no out of hours environmental enforcement officers anymore. By this time I'd been on the internet and educated myself on legal matters appertaining to noise so informed her the council had a duty under the Noise Act to do something.
She said no mate, not since South Buckinghamshire council opted out of it they don't.
So there we were. We had tunes banging out all night, throughout the night and into the morning people turned up at out gate looking for the rave. One taxi driver kept sounding his horn to get us out of bed at 6 something in the morning. All in all not good news.
I spoke with the council and also got in touch with our Councillors. None of whom have done anything about the incident. It turns out that providing you own the land or have the land owners permission no one will stop you having an all night rave in South Bucks.
I was quite shocked. It's one of those situations where clearly someone is doing something wrong but no one stepped in to help us. The Police knew who was hosting the event, it was a peaceful enough event, I'm sure there were recreational drugs, there was a massive bonfire people were either drinking, dancing or chilling, it wasn't an angry mob that would have required a riot squad to disperse.
Have I been mugged off by Thames Valley Police or South Bucks council? Were there things they could and should have done?
Henry
Edited by Henry-F on Wednesday 9th September 15:41
Wow, looks like a fair bit of production went into the video!
Is the music recorded from the event, or has that been added to the video? Sounds a bit too high quality to be a recording?
I'm sure it was pretty annoying being kept up, but I'm not sure exactly what you would like the Council or the Police to do about post event. you say that someone was clearly doing something wrong, but that seems to amount to them making a lot of noise, I'm not sure it's worth the time or the anger myself.
Is the music recorded from the event, or has that been added to the video? Sounds a bit too high quality to be a recording?
I'm sure it was pretty annoying being kept up, but I'm not sure exactly what you would like the Council or the Police to do about post event. you say that someone was clearly doing something wrong, but that seems to amount to them making a lot of noise, I'm not sure it's worth the time or the anger myself.
There are powers that the police have to remove persons from land where they're attending an illegal rave. The council have more powers to deal with the issue though, as simple nuisance noise. I know the local council in the town where I work have canned there night noise team, and that's a real shame. They could seize noisemaking equipment and issue hefty fines, much more than the police could do at the time.
I imagine staffing issues would be a problem if you were going to use the police to disperse a rave, and you'd need huge amounts of manpower to do it.
Follow up with the council and see about getting the organiser prosecuted.
I imagine staffing issues would be a problem if you were going to use the police to disperse a rave, and you'd need huge amounts of manpower to do it.
Follow up with the council and see about getting the organiser prosecuted.
b
hstewie said:
hstewie said: I think you've missed a trick. Contact the organisers and sell video merch.
I hear what you say in terms of it only being noise and not worth losing sleep over - although ironically that's exactly what happened
, but I was genuinely amazed that it's perfectly legal to set up a huge sound system in your South Bucks back garden and blast out music until 7.00AM. No one has the power to stop you.I can see how someone less balanced than I would have got themselves into a lot of bother. It wouldn't take too much imagination to see someone getting shot or beaten to a pulp. Bloke goes round with a bit of protection as there is a big crowd & one of him and it all goes Pete Tong. Ultimately the police should be there to avoid things getting out of hand. If I stand shouting racist remarks at people I imagine I would be arrested as much for my own protection as the offence it would cause.
I wonder how many other councils have removed themselves from the ability to deal with noise out of hours.
Henry
The difficulty you have is where do you draw the line... is it a private party or a rave? If it was a one off and on land they own, I would say it's more of a private party. Which the police do not have powers to deal with. TVP were quite right in saying its the council who deal with this.
My friend owns a large bit of land and has a yearly party which goes on quite late every year. It involves DJs, Bars, Laser Shows and Portable toilets. He does warn the neighbours before hand and it's only once a year.
My friend owns a large bit of land and has a yearly party which goes on quite late every year. It involves DJs, Bars, Laser Shows and Portable toilets. He does warn the neighbours before hand and it's only once a year.
Henry-F said:
I was quite shocked. It's one of those situations where clearly someone is doing something wrong but no one stepped in to help us. The Police knew who was hosting the event, it was a peaceful enough event, I'm sure there were recreational drugs, there was a massive bonfire people were either drinking, dancing or chilling, it wasn't an angry mob that would have required a riot squad to disperse.
Sorry but unless the noise was over a the set limit audible from your property then in fact they weren't doing anything wrong at all. Basically this is someone having a party in their own grounds with music. When I grew up a lot of my friends had 18th or 21st parties in their back gardens and we would go on to the sun rise. Now it helped that a lot of the neighbours were actually at the party but essentially they (nor we) weren't doing anything illegal.You may not like it but unless it was exceptionally loud then it's perfectly legal to have a party in your own garden! If it was excessively loud then they would have been asked to turn it down to a permitted level, but even then no-one can stop it unless it breaches noise regulations.
As for people turning up at your gate, well that's a bit unfortunate but not exactly the end of the world. One dips
t beeped his horn at 6am. st happens.If I were you I'd have gone over there asked the guy running it to give you some beers for the inconvenience and then joined in. Return home pissed up after a boogie at 3am and sleep like a log!
HantsRat said:
Out of interest, how many other neighbours other than yourself live next to them? Was this a one off?
Perhaps they were all invited and had a great time
I expect that if this kind of thing hasn't happened before that it's a one off and the OP should get on with life. Perhaps worth visiting the neighbour and being civil rather than writing to councilors the police and such like.
Reminds me of 1989 the Summer of Love, going to Energy, Biology & Rain Dance by virtue of the new M25.
This is the Law that put a stop to it all back then http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/33/sectio... aka the repetitive beats law.
This is the Law that put a stop to it all back then http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/33/sectio... aka the repetitive beats law.
I've been there with neighbours playing music all night, I can sympathise, but for me it was repeatedly, from less than 100m away and I still never actually even got so upset as to actually get out of bed, so the lengths you've gone to with your little video, your incandescent rage that people drove up to your gate(!!!), it all smells a bit nimby. Using a generator and porta potties, sounds like they were a fair way down some fields, so how close to your house were they really?
There aren't many bits of private land with amicable owners which are also so far from any other dwelling as to make the music inaudible and it's happened once?
We've got to rave somewhere mate
*off to south bucks this weekend*
There aren't many bits of private land with amicable owners which are also so far from any other dwelling as to make the music inaudible and it's happened once?
We've got to rave somewhere mate
*off to south bucks this weekend*
Strange this as we used to get this exact same thing happen at a house about 1/4 mile from us (in aylesbury) - EVERY August bank holiday.
But not this year !
Looks like they moved to your neck of the woods.
Others may have found that the easiest way to get a proper police response is to have "witnessed" people outside the party paying money for clear packets with white powder in it ;-)
But not this year !
Looks like they moved to your neck of the woods.
Others may have found that the easiest way to get a proper police response is to have "witnessed" people outside the party paying money for clear packets with white powder in it ;-)
A number of points raised.
Given we were able to identify each track using Shazam I'd say it was too loud. This wasn't some kid running a stereo out of their sitting room window it was a full sound system with furkin huge bass bins housed under an open sided marquee to keep it all dry. We were 300 yards away as the crow flies.
There are a total of 8 properties plus the site in question which is owned by Dirk Digweed's family. They can't get planning to build anything so it's used it as a party venue. It has happened before. They won't st on their own doorstep because they know what would happen to them so they use this site.
"It only happens once a year on my birthday" was used on the night. I pointed out that a total of 26 people live on the lane. I'm not including Jocyln Brown at the end in her 12 room mansion, or the garden cottage because her gate opens onto the main road if we all decided to throw a similar rave on our birthdays it would be every other Saturday.
Add to that the fact that our family get through wives like motor cars so there's a wedding every othe year, a number of religious festivals are celebrated and my extended mob would want to use our gaff for their celebrations, you can imagine the mess. Surely we all have to live with each other in society?
No other residents were there. I was very pleasant in my dealings with the lad conscious I didn't want to end up in the cells myself. What can you do when he says this is how it's going to be mate and we are carrying on until tomorrow morning?
This wasn't a difficult one. When your music is clearly audible at 3.30 am inside a double glazed house 300 yards away you're doing something wrong which needs controlling.
Henry
Given we were able to identify each track using Shazam I'd say it was too loud. This wasn't some kid running a stereo out of their sitting room window it was a full sound system with furkin huge bass bins housed under an open sided marquee to keep it all dry. We were 300 yards away as the crow flies.
There are a total of 8 properties plus the site in question which is owned by Dirk Digweed's family. They can't get planning to build anything so it's used it as a party venue. It has happened before. They won't s
t on their own doorstep because they know what would happen to them so they use this site."It only happens once a year on my birthday" was used on the night. I pointed out that a total of 26 people live on the lane. I'm not including Jocyln Brown at the end in her 12 room mansion, or the garden cottage because her gate opens onto the main road
if we all decided to throw a similar rave on our birthdays it would be every other Saturday.Add to that the fact that our family get through wives like motor cars so there's a wedding every othe year, a number of religious festivals are celebrated and my extended mob would want to use our gaff for their celebrations, you can imagine the mess. Surely we all have to live with each other in society?
No other residents were there. I was very pleasant in my dealings with the lad conscious I didn't want to end up in the cells myself. What can you do when he says this is how it's going to be mate and we are carrying on until tomorrow morning?
This wasn't a difficult one. When your music is clearly audible at 3.30 am inside a double glazed house 300 yards away you're doing something wrong which needs controlling.
Henry
Forums | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff