How the other half live

Last orders for snob yobs as Cornwall cracks down on upper-class parties

As the sun set at Daymer Bay on the beautiful north Cornish coast last night, police vans circled the beaches, waiting for the invasion. After years of suffering at the hands of posh, drunken teenagers causing havoc, the fight-back has begun.

Hundreds of what locals have dubbed "snob yobs" staggered from the two pubs in the village of Rock on Friday night and followed the winding road that leads to the beach. But, as they swarmed on to the sand, the police were waiting for them.

Every summer, Rock - dubbed "Kensington-on-Sea" thanks to the high number of upper-class Chelsea residents who make the Cornwall village their home for July and August - is invaded by hundreds of public school students who spend their nights boozing on the beach, starting fires, and urinating and vomiting in doorways.

But now battle lines have been drawn and local residents are striking back. Security guards have been hired by the residents' association to patrol the privately-owned Daymer Bay, the scene of much of the drunken revelry, preventing anyone from getting on to the beach at night. Instead, the "snob yobs" will be diverted to nearby Polzeath beach where a dispersal zone will also be in place with at least four uniformed police officers on duty every night. They will remove any group of youngsters who threaten to get out of control, ban them from returning for 24 hours, and could even fine them as much as £2,500.

One local resident, Bill Frampton, 63, watched the teenagers being dispersed on Friday night from behind the fence of his house.

"I don't mind people having fun," he said, "but when it comes to being sick, pissing on my lawn and stealing bits of my fence, it is too much. I mean, you wouldn't like it, would you?"

Independent (UK), 10 July 2005