Investigation into Folk Week Booze Fuelled Bad Behaviour

Chairman of Thanet District Council Overview & Scrutiny Panel,  Councillor Ian Driver, is launching an investigation into  what he described as  a  “sustained and uncontrolled outbreak of booze fuelled  bad behaviour”  during  August’s  Broadstairs Folk Week.

The festival  which has been going for more than 40 years attracts thousands of visitors to Broadstairs and makes a major contribution to the local economy. However this year there have been many complaints about the behaviour of festival goers

 Said Driver “I am a big supporter of the Broadstairs Folk Week. It’s a brilliant event with fantastic music, and it makes an extremely important contribution to the local economy. But this year many people have complained to me about unacceptable behaviour and low key policing which spoilt the event”.

“I was out with friends on the last night of the festival and have never seen so many drunks congregated in such a small area of Broadstairs. It was a bit like the Wild West. I personally witnessed 2 punch ups and lost count of how many people I saw throwing up  or urinating in the streets and gardens  as I made my way home. Many of these people were young men and women who were probably below the legal  drinking age. In the course of the evening I doubt if I saw more than half a dozen police officers”.

“I don’t want the Festival to stop. In fact I want it to grow and become even more successful, but we need to look into what went wrong this year and work with the Police, festival organisers and local businesses to make sure that we do not have a repeat of the unacceptable behaviours that spoilt  things this year”.

I hope to be able to announce the scope of the enquiry and who the Overview and Scutiny Panel will be  taking evidence from in the next week or so.