Rave behind Queens Road Station (and the power of the press)

I had a number of complaints last week about an extremely noisy party that was held near the railway arches behind Queens Road Station. Residents from the far end of Astbury Road were kept awake till 3am on the Sunday night.

One thing that particularly upset residents was how slow the council and police were to close the party down. One resident called at 1am and was told that the council was already aware of the situation - yet it still took another 90mins before the authorities went in.

I (and others) spent a lot of time last week complaining to the council's licensing team - trying to get some reassurance that they had identified who was holding the parties and that they were making sure that it wouldn't happen again.

We weren't getting much in the way of answers, so on Friday I called in the South London Press. Shortly after the journalist called the press desk I got an email from the head of licensing to tell me that they'd be patrolling the area alongside the police and the community wardens! Call me a cynic, but I don't think this was a coincidence.

The good news is that there was no disturbance this weekend.

So thank you to the SLP, read their report here.