Dealing with anti social behaviour at the Res.

The sun is out temperatures are soaring and as we know this tends to bring the less desirable elements of the Bromsgrove and district teenage population, amongst others of all ages, up to the Res to enjoy themselves! Nothing wrong with enjoying the first signs of summer I think we'd all agree and as a fishery with a public access bank we do have to live and let live and use some discretion when interacting with the general public. However we all know at times over the next couple of months there will be groups of people coming up to the Res carrying large quantities of booze intending on having a "good time" with no regard for others enjoyment and welfare. I was up at the Res this morning and spoke to Jim Gilbert who informed me of yesrerday afternoon's and evening's events which only subsided just before midnight. One group of teenagers in the afternoon brought a large ghetto blaster and proceeded to play it at maximum volume first below the dam and then in the house swim while drinking alcohol, paddling in the margins and generally making a racket. These went around late afternoon early evening but worse was to follow. Around 8pm a group of around 20 teenagers of around 15 to 17 years of age turned up on the dam wall with enough alcohol to sink a ship. Unforunately John Grubb was pitched up at the start of the dam and had to endure around four hours, until just this side of midnight, of anti social behaviour. He did very well to restrain himself from getting involved as the group got progressively more drunk, noisy, aggressive and proceeded to throw glass bottles of beer, spirits etc. into the margins close to where John was fishing.
It's very easy to think about taking the law into your own hands in these situations and there were other members who were ready to come to John's aid if a confrontation occurred. However all thought better of it, including John who showed great restraint, and eventually the drunken mob dispersed although not before going down into the car park and shining torches into the cars.
So where do we go from here, no-one wants to spend syndicate fees to sit in the middle of that on a regular basis. I hav taken the following action which I hope will help to nip the problem in the bud so to speak although I'm not claiming it will stop the problem over night. I went to Bromsgrove Police station and made an incident report giving my personal details and a full account of events. The station officer has emailed the report to colleagues requesting a regular presence up at the Res patrolling at the key times of Friday and Saturday evenings. He also gave me some 101 cards. This is a new initiative by the Police regarding telephone contact. 999 is still the emergency number but you can call 101 to report less urgent crime or disorder such as your car being stolen, property damaged, drug dealing, anti social behaviour and general crime in your area. Last night's events would definitely have qualified for a 101 call. I notified the Police of the Grimley Lane fishery access and if you do call for a response on 101 iw would be helpful to let the Police through the key access gate and into the car park. I have given out 101 cards to some of our members on the bank but will try and let you all have cards in due course.
So to sum up, we should now be getting regular patrols at weekend evening times. Can members let me know when the Police do come up there and make there presence felt. We all need to make judgement calls as to when and what to do if our fishing is being affected by the sort of behaviour we experienced this weekend. Think before you act or intervene and if things are getting out of hand and no Police are present don't hesitate to call 101 and ask for assistance.

Tight lines to all and let's hope peace will resume at The Res ASAP. With the Police support and common sense from our members I'm sure it will.

John Howard,
Head Bailiff

Well done John, the police is definately the answer in cases like this despite the urge many members myself included would feel to wade in with a pair of 20" stainless banksticks !!!!! DONT...... call 101