Police have taken 'different approach' to noise
The islands' Sergeant has said that police have taken a different approach to tackling noise on St Mary's at night.
Sgt Darren White told Radio Scilly that he believes in a collaborative approach between police, environmental health, Pubwatch, the pub landlords and "us actually interacting with some of these individuals when they’re a bit less than worse for wear for alcohol".
He said: "What I wanted to do was actually look at the source of it and invariably it’s specific individuals that are the source of that noise. Rather than imposing just fines or words of advice on the street to a drunken individual to try to keep the noise down, we’re working together with the pub landlords. We’ve reintroduced the PubWatch scheme and I’m really happy to see that the pub landlords are supporting the police in what we’re trying to achieve.
"So we're doing low-level, highly impactive things like short-term banning orders for individuals who are our 'repeat offenders'. And we’ve found that it’s been really effective, it’s quietened the process down. I can’t say it's gone away, I don’t think it ever will because individuals when they have a drink will come out and some of them do like to sing all the way down the street.
"I’m a firm believer that high spirits will happen and people will go out and enjoy a drink and good company. Those individuals when they’re going home all we ask is that they’re respectful of the community they live in. Of course if an individual crosses over that threshold and causes either disorder and damage that’s obviously the point where we will come in and we will be robust in response to it."
Sgt White added that the situation is not helped by low ambient noise and the fact that "the main street almost reverberates any noise from one end of the street right the way down to the other".