Cheltenham Festival has an alcohol problem says crime commissioner, but town's anti-social behaviour crackdown is working

The Cheltenham Festival still needs to resolve its "alcohol problem" in its fight against anti-social behaviour, according to Chris Nelson, the police crime commissioner for Gloucestershire.

But efforts by the force, racecourse and community to make the town safer during the four days in March were rewarded with a ten per cent drop in the number of reported incidents this year.

Nelson also revealed how the force foiled efforts by two major protest groups, understood to be Just Stop Oil and Animal Rising, to disrupt this year's festival.

Nelson said the police identified drunk racegoers as the main source of trouble from among the 547 reported incidents, with urination in front gardens, hedges and walls on the routes to town after the meeting still the most common issue across the week.

The racecourse's Love Our Turf campaign – which included closing roads to create pedestrian routes, with toilet facilities and marshalls – was hailed by Nelson, but an even bigger effort is promised next year. 

Nelson said: "There’s definitely more we can do but we’re moving in the right direction. I think things are better. Anti-social behaviour in that week has gone down, but it’s still a work in progress. 

"Alcohol in the town is the single biggest problem the festival has and leads to the issues it has, like anti-social behaviour, misogyny and all the rest of it – people do things they wouldn’t do at any other time of the year.

"Society has an alcohol problem so it’s not just the Cheltenham Festival, but it’s probably the biggest single issue of the week and the one all those linked to it have to address. 

"It’s difficult to solve, because you don’t want to undermine people’s enjoyment of an event, but I’d rather take a public health approach by getting people to think more about what they’re doing and not doing – by that I mean calling out bad behaviour. We need to do more to reach people and change that behaviour."

Police on the lookout for potential trouble at CheltenhamCredit: Getty Images

A local councillor, who was contacted by the Racing Post, has called for an alcohol ban on trains going to Cheltenham Spa during the four days of the festival, but the police want to avoid that.

Instead, it will work closely with the local council and racecourse to combat public urination. Cheltenham Borough Council launched its own 'war on wee' in February, offering residents and businesses fluid-repellent paint, but Nelson said only a few people took part so it had little influence on the wider issue. He criticised the council for being "asleep at the wheel" in failing to tackle anti-social behaviour during the week for so long.

"We’ve done more about the Cheltenham Festival in the last few years than ever before," he said. "The Love Our Turf campaign was brilliant. I wasn’t sure initially how good the Jockey Club would embrace all of this, but when it got its act together I thought it was very good and a great example of responsible event management. It was effective and I was pleased with how it stood up and did something different.

"But the key problem is still weeing from drunken visitors coming to the festival. It’s a case of people being inconsiderate as to where they unload, that’s the primary issue and really bugs residents. Especially when it’s outside their home, and we’ve been told of people defecating. It’s anti-social, unpleasant and illegal."

One of the force's successes was an avoidance of disruption despite a "real threat" from protest groups, seen at subsequent sporting events including the Derby and second Ashes Test at Lord's by the likes of Animal Rising and Just Stop Oil. 

Shaun West, a new deputy chief commander, was appointed last year to help with the force's management of big events.

Nelson said: "We had pointers something was going to happen during the Cheltenham Festival and precautions were taken. I can’t talk about the details, but they were active and it’s to the credit of the team that it was prevented. There was a real threat. 

"There are thousands of people we’re responsible for, we're doing lots of work to get it right and we’ve got greater resilience against any potential crises."

The aggregate attendance for the Cheltenham Festival in March was 240,603.

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