High spirits in Highworth (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

High spirits in Highworth

The normally peaceful market town of Highworth bursts into rowdy life every weekend as revellers from around Swindon flock to the town's pubs. But a recent rise in loutishness has forced local police to step up patrols.

TAMASH LAL joined the party to see whether drinkers are heeding warnings to improve their behaviour.

IT'S a cold, wet January night in Highworth, and the streets are deserted. To the outsider, the pretty town comes across as a perfect slice of picture-postcard Britain a historic church, traditional pubs, a teashop tempting passers-by with mounds of cream cakes, and a weekly market.

But like many small towns, Highworth has its share of problems the latest being the kind of disorderly behaviour the Government has repeatedly pledged to tackle.

Underneath the bucolic charm, Highworth knows how to party.

While at one end of town, the Saracen's Head is filled with nothing more than noisy pub chatter, in the Fishes in Swindon Road the dry-ice swirls, lights flash, and the music is so loud you can feel the bass in your stomach.

Orders are yelled as bar staff frantically try to maintain the flow of alcohol to thirsty revellers.

It's all good-natured fun DJ Andy G may be loud, but no one here wants trouble.

When two police officers arrive, they joke with drinkers and bar staff.

They have called in as part of a crackdown on anti-social behaviour in the town that started over the New Year period.

Then there was a fight in the cemetery in St Michael's Church in which a 16-year-old boy received serious facial injuries.

On another occasion, a fight between two women in a pub spilled out onto the streets.

Highworth has suffered from anti-social behaviour in the past, most of it caused by teenagers.

In 2002, there was a spate of vandalism, including one incident in which damage put at £1,000 was caused to the open-air lido.

In the same year, Swindon borough's first Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) was served on a Highworth teenager who was 14 at the time.

The boy, who caused misery in the town, was eventually sent to a young offenders' institution for three months after he persistently breached the order.

Magistrates have since issued two more ASBOs in Swindon, which can ban troublemakers from specified areas or from harassing people in the community.

But Highworth's recent trouble has mainly been caused by older people, and is the kind of behaviour the police will soon be able to tackle with fixed penalty notices.

From April, officers will be able to issue on-the-spot fines of between £40 and £80 for petty offences, like being drunk and disorderly.

The problems in Highworth usually start at closing time, but the police patrols have proved an effective deterrent.

Around six officers have been patrolling the streets on foot and in vans, but more can be called in if needed.

Sgt Adrian Davis, of Highworth police said: "I think our presence has been felt.

"Before we started the patrols, a lot of people were hanging around outside the fast food shops at night, which is where trouble can start.

"We have had a deterrent effect, which is good.

"The idea is not for me to have a cell full of people every Saturday morning."

As the hordes leave the Fishes, there's the usual noise and drunken high spirits as they head to the Highworth Kebab Shop next door.

Revellers fall about on the pavement, hugging each other and shouting, trying to muster enough sobriety to organise taxis to the clubs in Swindon.

"Come on Dave, who's up for the Brunel Rooms?" shouts one guy, as he runs up and down the street, trying to shepherd a group together.

One girl hints that this evening is a quiet one.

"You should see it some nights, it's mad," she says. But the clubbers soon fall into their taxis, and once stomachs are filled, the crowd disperses into the night.

The cold weather may have helped, but it seems that in Highworth, bobbies on the beat are still the best deterrent against yobs intent on causing problems.