The police took eight hours to shut down an illegal rave at the weekend

A rave in south west England was allowed to continue in the early hours of Sunday morning as police didn't have enough "resources" to shut it down.

Complaints about the party in Vallis Vale near Frome were made at around 1.30am but the music went on until about 9.30am, when officers finally moved in to turn the music off.

According to Chief Superintendent Ian Smith of Avon and Somerset Police, health and safety concerns were the reasons for allowing to to continue.

He said: "If we are aware in advance about a potential event, the law allows us to take action to close it down. However, if it has already started, an assessment has to be made.

"There were a large number of people in attendance and we needed to have the right number of resources in place to make sure they could leave without putting themselves or others at risk."

Smith might have been fairly lenient towards the ravers, but a load of busybody locals barraged the police force's Facebook page with moans and groans.

One local posted: "Where are the local police to stop these illegal activities which are not only annoying and frustrating, but, causing loss of sleep could be life threatening?"

We're not totally sure about the latter end of that comment but at least there were some people saying the rave really "doesn't hurt anyone" and didn't care as long as those there were being "well behaved".

The ravers might have had their fun longer than expected, but there's still going to be an investigation into the rave, so they might not be fully triumphant.

At least it didn't turn violent like this one, though.

[Via: BBC News]

[Image: BBC/ VIZMAPS]

Dave Turner is Mixmag's Digital News Editor, follow him on Twitter