Rupert Matthews The police and crime commissioner, gives reassurance to local residents in Oakham over the week long, Light and Life religious festival on the showground.
The owners of a showground have apologised over reports of anti-social behaviour from attendees of a Christian festival being held on its site.
Leicestershire police are mointoring this unplanned event in Rutland and have increased the policing in and around the area.
An estimated 1,600 travellers arrived at the showground for a Christian religious event called the festival of "Light and Life”.
This event runs until Friday the 25th of June.
This morning Monday we access the site and surrounding areas to report on this event.
McDonalds in Lands End just across the road from the showground decided to close the sit in restaurant, they are only operating drive thru and have also suspended its click and collect service until further notice.
Police at McDonalds were actively engaging with the public.
The BP - M&S garage have increase security, both McDonalds and the garage refused to give any press statements.
The police tweeted earlier last night the following.
“Supt Adam Slonecki, from Specialist Support:
‘Due to a number of incidents that have occurred in the Oakham area we have made a number of arrests and will continue to progress enquires. We would like to thank the local community for their continued support.”
Police have released yesterday Sunday the following statement.
“We can confirm we have received information from local residents in Oakham and Rutland in relation to anti-social behaviour in the area.
This relates to a private event which is a legally authorised event on private land between Light and Life and Rutland Showground. With permission from the organiser we will be regularly going into the event and continue to engage with the event co-ordinator to ensure they are covid safe.
We would like to reassure residents that we have extra foot patrols, a dedicated roads policing car and a specialist drone team operating in the area. In addition, local officers will be engaging with local businesses and licenced premises.
We continue to work with the event goers and organisers to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum.”
Anyone with any information is visit https://www.leics.police.uk/ro/report/ quoting reference Log 186 of 19 June 2021 or to call 101.
A statement from the local council have been release today (Monday 21st June)
It has been a challenging weekend for many of the county’s residents and businesses, and I would like to thank all residents for your support and patience.
Rutland County Council was not made aware of this event as no event application was submitted in advance.
Our standard event procedures require for event organisers to submit an event application and risk statements, which enable partners to review to ensure all aspects of an event – from health and safety, including compliance with Covid-19 regulations through to traffic management – are compliant. Unfortunately, without prior notification, the Council and its partners were unable to do this.
We have been working closely with partners, especially the Police, to manage and respond to the immediate issues arising from this event, including putting in place increased patrols across our community.
Officers will be undertaking traffic management at key times, including school drop off and pick up, and will also be located at areas that are attracting increased numbers.
Plans are underway to ensure minimal disruption to the community at key points in the event, for example the event closing.
There is ongoing communication with the event organiser. We have reviewed their event procedures and documentation and will be making relevant recommendations to improve the running of this event to protect attendees and the wider community.
Additionally, we are looking to increase the numbers and presence of our Covid-19 Marshalls in our towns, offering PPE to the event organisers to distribute amongst participants and providing PPE to key shops.
I truly understand the concern that the events of this weekend have brought to the county and want to assure you that the Council and its partners are doing all we can to protect you.