Large car meet in Cheddar Gorge dispersed following calls from the public

A large car meet in Cheddar Gorge was dispersed by the police yesterday (August 1) following calls from members of the public.

The dispersal follows recent calls from the force for residents to let it know when events were happening.

The local neighbourhood policing team in Cheddar were called into action when a large number of vehicles started to gather in the gorge from 3pm onwards.

Additional resources were brought in and officers worked with organisers to bring an end to the event. Several motorists were also issued with individual dispersal notices.

Chief Inspector Nigel Colston said: "Our ability to disrupt large gatherings is significantly enhanced when we have the support of our communities.

"We're extremely grateful for the assistance provided to us this weekend which enabled us to take action and bring an end to an event which started to frustrate local residents.

"We hope people appreciate we can't always charge in to situations to bring them to an early finish and there may well be some disruption until we can safely disperse people from the area.

"The event we disrupted this weekend was in motion before officers attended but we were able to negotiate with organisers and participants, and encourage them to leave or issue orders requiring them to.

"The sooner we're made aware of events taking place the quicker we can act and I'd like to thank all those who called us yesterday to report their concerns, it helped enormously."