A Minehead resident says anti-social youths congregating in Minehead’s Blenheim Gardens are ‘using it as a toilet.’ 

Speaking to the Free Press anonymously, the resident complained of youths defecating in the park and screaming into the early hours of the morning. 

The individual, who lives near the park, told of the havoc wreaked by teenagers in the area, saying: “They are leaving poo, wee, they are doing drugs, they’re leaving drinks, they’re using that place as a toilet. In the daytime children play there, it’s not nice. 

“A week ago I said to them, ‘Guys you have to leave I’m going to call the police’, and they just carried on until midnight. 

“Underage people are going there and doing drugs and using alcohol, with some around 15 or 16 years of age. 

“They scream and go crazy in the night-time. At 1 am in the morning there are girls screaming, you don’t know what’s going on. 

“They jump over the fence and spend all night there, they do whatever they want. I never see the police going there. 

“I think the council need to fix the fence, there needs to be CCTV cameras, and I think the police have to do something, they have to go there and sort it out. 

“The park is beautiful but they leave loads of rubbish there, all the drinks, food, all the drugs, and they’re using it as a toilet.” 

This week police announced they would be stepping up their presence in the area, pledging anti-social behaviour would be tackled by ‘targeted patrols.’ 

In a statement released on Monday, the neighbourhood policing team said: “The team in Minehead have received reports of youths causing damage and anti-social behaviour in Blenheim Gardens. This type of behaviour is not tolerated and any criminal damage or anti-social behaviour will be actioned through targeted patrols.”

Police officers collected a Morrisons bag worth of rubbish from the park’s bandstand, before posting a picture to social media. 

Responding to the police statement on Facebook, outgoing deputy mayor of Minehead, Toni Bloomfield, said: “I’ve lost count of the amount of times myself and my kids have cleaned the bandstand every day over the last two seasons in Blenheim Gardens. 

“Even down to alcohol mess, broken glass and drug paraphernalia on a couple of occasions (I never let kids touch the drug or alcohol). 

“It’s an ongoing problem in the area and across many of the play parks in Minehead.”

Another commenter said: “The play parks are covered in rubbish and drug paraphernalia on a daily basis. One of the dog waste bins was filled with aerosol cans and then set alight, it exploded everywhere. 

“Broken glass over the play equipment and used condoms left lying around, it gets even worse over the school holidays so an increase in police patrols in areas like this would be much appreciated.” 

The problem of anti-social behaviour in the park has proved to be a longstanding problem. As far back as two decades ago the Free Press published a letter from a reader whose North Road flat overlooked the troubled park. 

The letter described some of the same problems as are being reported today: “The presence, mainly in the morning, of people suffering from the effects of an over-indulgence of alcohol in the shelter is a very unpleasant sight, not to mention the foul language for all to hear and the stench of alcohol, urine and empty tins and bottles.

“I feel that it must be most depressing for the garden staff to report for duty only to find these vandals, who must be caught, named, shamed and punished, have destroyed all their hard labours. 

“They are flagrantly breaking the laws and maybe should not only be fined but also banned from entering the gardens.”

The fire brigade rushed to the park in May, 2021, after a 30ft palm tree was set alight and destroyed by arsonists. The previous month police had urged residents to come forward with reports of anti-social behaviour after youths threw stones into the park, causing ‘mindless and totally unnecessary damage.’