Police fears over Rox

Inspector John Merrick, the policeman in charge of the town's patrols, will play a key role in talks within the police force to decide its stance about the 2008 event.

Chief Inspector Brian Bracher, the top police officer in the area, will also be involved in those discussions.

'It's a bit early to comment about next year's festival. I've an open mind about the matter,' said Insp Merrick, 'but I will be making my recommendations to the debriefing sessions we will be holding.'

His views will also be reported to the safety advisory group which brings together all the groups involved in staging Rox at its next meeting. Talks will also be held with representatives of the licensing trade.

'I do appreciate that people just want to put on an event in the town to promote the town and the arts.

'I'm all in favour of that,' Insp Merrick stated. 'It's how we can do it to keep everybody safe and to minimise the impact on the people who live and work in Bognor as well which is the key to the future.'

The Observer last week reported Insp Merrick's unhappiness at the effect of Rox on the law and order situation along the seafront and in the town centre during the July 20-21 staging.

He had a peak strength of 35 extra officers on duty during the first day to take the total presence well past 40. Most were working during the evening and night.

They made 20 arrests. The majority of offences concerned violence and criminal damage. Sixteen individuals were kept in custody at Chichester and Worthing overnight.

This compares to the recent number of one or two individuals in the cells after being arrested in Bognor on a Saturday night in the seafront area.

Even before a recent police crackdown on violent crime along The Esplanade most Saturdays would see between 7-10 individuals locked up overnight.

Insp Merrick said he appreciated not all the extra arrests could be blamed on Rox being back on the seafront for the first time in six years.

But the atmosphere in which people were encouraged to gather and drink for hours contributed to the high number of incidents.

Some 15,000 people were estimated to have attended Rox with about 3,500 present at any one time.

'The atmosphere was fine on the Saturday until about 7-8pm when it began to change,' said Insp Merrick, who patrolled the Rox zone along with Ch Insp Bracher.

'We were at full stretch dealing with the situations as they arose. We never lost control of the streets and we were never in danger of that happening but we were busy and we needed all the extra officers.'

'Sunday was fine. There was a completely different feel to the day and there were noticeably less people around. We only made one arrest and that was on the pier for a drink-related incident shortly after Rox finished.'

Sixteen extra officers were drafted in on the second day to take the total number pr esent well past 20.

Rox also took place in an area where the drinking of alcohol in public is severely restricted. Enforcing the law was relaxed during the festival to avoid too many conflicts with festival-goers. Confiscation was left to individual officers where people were drunk, causing trouble or under-age.

Insp Merrick said he feared it would take a while to reinforce the message that drinking in public was strictly controlled.

Rox spokesman Robin Parker said the organisation was happy to meet the police to discuss next year's event.

'If this level of arrests is correct, we do need to talk about the situation and make sure that Rox2008 is safer next year.'

He said a positive response had been received from visitors to this year's festival. 'Everyone said it was a good atmosphere, with no threats of trouble or anything unusual at all,' he stated.

'We were really surprised at the level of arrests. The police must have done a good job in containing any trouble away from the main crowd.'

n Backing for Rox was given by Bognor Regis Chamber of Commerce's executive meeting at its members' July meeting.