Second street party held in Peterborough at site of booze-fuelled rave attended by hundreds

There was widespread anger among residents of Sheepwalk in Paston after approximately 300 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.

It has also now been revealed that an earlier street party had been held at the same address five days earlier, on Wednesday last week, which is said to have been attended by around 80 people, many of whom were reportedly drinking.

A property linked to the gatherings has now been served a closure notice.

City councillor for Paston and Walton Nick Sandford said he had been informed that a resident has complained to police about a “lack of action”.

He told the Peterborough Telegraph: “Local people have told me they are not happy with the response from police.

“They feel in the current emergency it’s important people take action to break up large groups like that.”

One resident who witnessed the first street party also told the PT that a food van in the street was serving food and alcohol.

He said: “People came from all over. I spoke to one person who had travelled from Loughborough. I spoke to a young lady who was going round, quite apologetically, with a black bag picking up rubbish quite late and she had come from Nottinghamshire.

“We believe it is organised via Snapchat and was advertised as a birthday barbecue. It was quite bad at times and there was a lot of rubbish left.”

A Cambridgeshire police spokeswoman said: “We received complaints from residents in Sheepwalk, Paston, on Wednesday evening last week (May 20) in regards to people gathering in the street.

“As part of these calls for service we have taken action resulting in a closure notice being served on a property in Sheepwalk today.”

Police have been carrying out patrols in the area and making enquiries following Monday’s rave which saw widespread concerns about a lack of social distancing.

An eye-witness told the PT: “It started with just a few cars turning up and within an hour you couldn’t move with all the cars and people in the street. It was ridiculous.”

The scene was only cleared at 1.30am after reports of a fight, with one person being taken to Peterborough City Hospital by ambulance.

There were also reports of a person being stabbed but both the police and ambulance service said they could not find any stabbing victims.

Officers returned to the scene both at 4am and later in the morning - with the scene taped off - and are carrying out patrols in the area this week, as well as speaking to residents.

Explaining the force’s actions on Bank Holiday Monday, a Cambridgeshire police spokesperson said: “Police were initially called at about 8.20pm with reports of seven or eight cars and 20 to 30 people gathered in Sheepwalk.

“Due to other operational commitments and ongoing incidents, officers were not able to immediately attend. It was not reported there was any threat to public safety.

“At just gone 10pm police were called by the ambulance service reporting a collision in Sheepwalk whereby a pedestrian had suffered minor injuries. Ambulance staff also reported a ‘rave’ of up to about 300 people in the street.

“Police were deployed to the area, however, due to the sheer volume of people, many of whom were intoxicated, it was deemed there were insufficient officer numbers to be able to safely move people on from the area.

“At 11pm people gradually started to leave the area, however, about an hour later there were reports someone had been stabbed.

“Further officers were deployed, including specialist units, to support ambulance crews and locate the reported stabbing victim. No one with any injuries was identified at the location, nor had they presented themselves at hospital.

“Approximately 16 police officers were instructed to stay at the location to monitor the situation and deal with any specific disorder or threats to life and to engage with those present to advise them to go home.

“Just after 1am the majority of people had left the area, with music turned off and all people cleared from the area by about 1.30am.

“Officers remained at the location until about 4am and will be carrying out patrols of the area throughout the week.”

Superintendent Adam Gallop added: “We understand local residents were concerned, and some frightened, by the large gathering last night.

“This was unfortunately one of a number of incidents we were managing across the city at the same time and advice was sought from public order specialists in order to maintain public safety.

“A safety assessment was carried out and while recognising the impact to the local community, due to the numbers present, additional policing resources were required in order to safely disperse the crowd.

“While planning had commenced to bring the event to a close, positive engagement by the officers at the scene encouraged those attending to begin dispersing, with the majority of people having left by 1am.

“We will be conducting enquiries in the area over the coming days so residents may notice an increased presence. We will also be conducting patrols in the area to prevent any further similar incidents.

“There is a line between organising community events to build morale in this challenging time, and the events of last night which very clearly were not acceptable. The local policing teams will continue to work with all our communities to advise, guide and, where necessary, enforce guidance and legislation.

“We are investigating the source of the gathering and how it came to be of such a scale. Where any offences have been committed we will take action, but due to the scale of the event and the number of enquiries we need to carry out this could take some time.”