Beach party is broken up

9:26am Wednesday 7th May 2008

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Police in Helston have condemned the irresponsible behaviour of parents who hindered them in their efforts to break up a beach party at the weekend.

More than 50 teenagers - many of them believed to be students from Helston Community College - gathered at Praa Sands on Friday, only to be met by members of the Helston neighbourhood policing team and Kerrier anti-social behaviour team. A large quantity of alcohol was confiscated and two 15-year-old girls were taken home because they were drunk.

Police recorded a number of teenagers' details because of their behaviour or because they were in possession of alcohol, and those youngsters will be required to attend Helston police station along with their parents.

Some would-be revellers travelled to the party by bus but others were dropped off by their parents, despite warnings from police officers at the scene.

Sergeant Mark Pascoe, from Helston police station, said: "Parents simply dropped off their youngsters, some of whom were 14 or 15 years old. They totally ignored the advice of police officers, drove off and showed a total disregard for the local community."

Sgt Pascoe said officers had acted to ensure residents in Praa Sands were not subjected to large groups of youths disrupting their lives.

But he questioned whether limited police resources were best deployed "to perform the tasks of parents".

He said: "The most frustrating and disturbing aspect of this incident is not that young people wanted to meet and socialise, but that a large number of parents abdicated their responsibility.

"They were either unaware of what their sons and daughters were doing and where they were, they were aware and were unconcerned or, as in a large number of cases, they actively condoned their involvement."

Helston Community College headteacher Dr Pat McGovern said the college worked closely with the police to prevent anti-social behaviour outside as well as inside school hours.

"It is as much our responsibility as it is the police's, but most importantly it is the parents' responsibility," he said. "More and more we are finding ourselves in the position of having to do what parents should be doing. If they knew where their children were and what they were doing, a lot of the problems would not arise in the first place."

Sgt Pascoe added that members of the anti-social behaviour team would be working with local officers on Flora Day to deal with any issues of under-age drinking or other anti-social behaviour.

n Helston police also acted to prevent a planned rave taking place at Church Cove, Gunwalloe, on Saturday night.

Responding to a tip-off from a member of the public, local neighbourhood beat manager PC Dave Vaughan and police community support officer Julia Berry worked closely with the National Trust to thwart the would-be party-goers. Vehicular access to the site was prevented and officers remained on scene into the early hours of the morning.

Richard Hockin, acting Inspector at Helston police station, said: "We have asked members of the public to report their suspicions about raves as soon as possible. By being able to prevent this rave before it got under way we have prevented what may have proved to be large scale disruption to local people."