Last updated at 06:59, Friday, 30 July 2010

NINE people were arrested in Maryport during the blues festival, which police said was generally trouble free.

Inspector George Nevins, of Maryport police, thanked the majority of the public, locals and visitors, for making the festival a pleasant time.

Sergeant Peter Garforth said there were nine arrests directly attributable to the festival, one more than last year.

He added: “All were Cumbrian and all but one, from Penrith, were Maryport, Workington and Whitehaven.”

Three people were taken into custody for being drunk and disorderly, two for public order offences, one for assault, one on suspicion of damaging cars and one for suspected drugs offences.

The ninth person was arrested for breach of a section 27 order, which bans known troublemakers from a specified area.

Overall, 13 people who were causing or about to cause disorder, were banned from the area for up to 48 hours and 21 under-18s causing minor problems were dealt with and two stop searches were carried out.

Two reports of theft of camping equipment and one of theft of a pedal cycle were reported from the festival campsite at Netherhall Rugby Club.

Sgt Garforth added: “There was a good atmosphere and the event went really well. Our early-intervention policy and the fact we had a lot of officers out prevented trouble.”

Police were well prepared for the festival this year.

Sgt Garforth had issued officers with small brochures containing every bit of information anyone would need right down to bus timetables, taxi company numbers and even the location of toilets.

First published at 19:27, Thursday, 29 July 2010
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk