West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Published: 7 March 2008
In the wee hours…
• HERE in and around Covent Garden and Leicester Square we are increasingly suffering, and not just from “disturbance”.
Twice in the last couple of months, the first time Christmas Day, we have been awoken by a clattering helicopter and searchlight virtually overhead, for 40-plus minutes. The police explain, eventually, this is because of a major disturbance and that they have to pursue criminals wherever they may go.
Leaving aside the question of bringing the choppers in for this sort of crime, the problems we see on the streets early morning virtually every day makes life a misery. Amid the shrieks and screams of carousers, the sound of breaking glass, echo around the streets well into the “wee” (literally, in doorways, gutters, and elsewhere) hours till 3am or 4am. The widespread binge culture and violent drunken behaviour is fuelled by cheap drink and vastly extended pubs, clubs and hours – part of the legacy of the last 10 years of inspired national leadership. DOMINIC PINTO
Bedfordbury, WC2
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