Closure notice served on house ‘responsible for boozy Peterborough rave attended by hundreds’

There was widespread anger among residents of Sheepwalk in Paston after hundreds of people partied throughout Bank Holiday Monday into the early hours of the morning, with police failing to take action due to the size of the gathering and the resource they had available.

The notice was issued this afternoon (Wednesday) to 171 Sheepwalk as a result of the gathering which saw numerous calls of service from local residents.

Evidence has been obtained and legal advice sought to go ahead with the closure notice which closes the premises to anyone other than the legal occupants for 48 hours. The notice was issued at 5.30pm today.

Following this, an application will be made to Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on Friday for a full closure order to be granted, which could prohibit access to everyone, including the current occupants, for a period of up to three months.

Failure to comply with the notice is a criminal offence which could result in imprisonment for up to three months, a fine, or both.

The notice states the ‘premises are subject to a closure notice as there are reasonable grounds for believing that the use of the premises has resulted or is likely to soon result in nuisance to members of the public from noise from parties, disorder and drug dealing, that there has been or is likely soon to be disorder near the premises associated with the use of those premises’.

Inspector Ian Lombardo said: “There is a line between organising community events to build morale in this challenging time and the events of Monday night. This was very clearly not acceptable and caused significant concern to local residents and put a strain on police resources.

“The closure notice gives us more powers to be able to tackle any further issues and move people on from the area, or arrest them should they fail to comply.

“Officers have been patrolling the area since the event on Monday night and will continue to do so.”