Coronavirus: police called to house party in Bournemouth

Officers arrived at the address in Cardigan Road at close to midnight on Tuesday, September 29, after reports of a “large party” taking place.

Residents, some of whom claimed they were verbally abused by attendees of the party, said between 50 and 60 people were in attendance at the house party.

• ‘They think coronavirus won’t affect them’: Anger as police called to house party involving 70 people

No fines were issued on the evening, but police are reviewing evidence to “determine further enforcement action”.

A police spokesman said: “We were called at 11.17pm on Tuesday, September 29, to reports that a large party was taking place at an address in Cardigan Road in Bournemouth, which was a breach of Covid-19 regulations.

“Officers attended, liaised with the occupants and dispersed the group. No fines were issued at the time of the incident.

“However, evidence will now be reviewed in order to determine further enforcement action.

“Local neighbourhood officers will continue to work with the local community to help raise awareness of the rule of six restrictions currently in place.

“We would like to remind everyone that they have a social responsibility to stick with these rules to prevent the further spread of coronavirus.”

Earlier this month, police were forced to break up a party involving 70 people at a house on the same street.

Neighbours in Cardigan Road have voiced their anger at the number of disturbances on their road, as well as the number of house parties in recent weeks.

One resident, who has been living at his current address for seven years, said: “It was just total mayhem out here.

“They were shouting abuse at my girlfriend and one of the neighbours who went over there to ask them to be quiet.

"Some people were weeing up against the door of the property next to the church.

“It is relentless, every single week, and all the police seem to do is move them on.

"Well I’m sorry, but by law, they should not be allowed more than six people in their house. What is going on?"

“The police know that this street is the worse street of them all for parties. At one point during the summer, we have had six parties all at the same time on this street, so why aren’t the police patrolling this street more?”

As the party was closing down, security patrol officers and police visited a number of houses to apologies for the disturbance.

The same resident added: “We had security wardens from the council come to our house. He said this street is well known for it and he apologised to us and so did the police, but it is not for them to apologise.

“A student came over to us last night and she was in tears and she said ‘I did have a couple of people around’ but you know what it is like, word gets out that there is a party and they all pile in. But she did at least apologise, she had only been here two days.

“We felt for her but at the end of the day she runs that risk if she hosts a gathering of any sort.”

Another neighbour added: “There was noise last night. I start work early in the mornings, so I am not impressed when I keep getting woken up.

"I just try and ignore it and try and get back to sleep as soon as I can.

"We have been living on this road for 40 years now and things like this happen all the time along this road.

"People are wanting to move away because there seems to be something kicking off on this road every week.

“I do sympathise with the students a bit because there isn’t a lot they can do at the moment but these rules are in place to keep us safe and what they are doing is blatantly breaking the rules.”