Police break up "large illegal gathering" in Wigan woodland

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) had an extremely busy Saturday (September 12), recording more than 3,000 incidents.

At around 9pm officers shut down a "large illegal gathering" in some woodland in Wigan.

Officers said there was a report of youths congregating in the area which offers dispersed. The area was patrolled afterwards with no further incident.

Elsewhere in Greater Manchester, officers were called to an address in Farnworth , where they broke up an ongoing party and issued a fine to the occupier.

Then at 10.30pm, GMP said that they'd broken up another party at a house in Farnworth.

It was reported that loud music could be heard for a number of hours.

Police sent everyone on their marching orders, and handed out a fine to the occupier.

Patrols also crashed a party in North Manchester – the third coronavirus breach they'd been called to at that address. The organised was issued with a fine shortly before 6.30pm.

In Stockport, a party for around 45 people was broken up at around 7pm, with the occupant handed a fine for their behaviour.

Yet another "large illegal gathering" was reported in Mottram, Tameside, at about 11pm. Around 60-70 people attended the festivities which were broken up and the organiser hit with a fine.

Trouble also brewed after patrols attended a home in Flixton, Trafford, where the occupants were "refusing to engage" with officers.

Police were able to shut down the party around 30 minutes later, and issued a fine to those responsible.

Officers had attended reports of an illegal rave in Trafford earlier in the day but found an organised event with "covid safe provisions" in place where they arrived at around 5.30pm.

Police had been forced to take a stronger chance after late-night harassment and anti-social behaviour in Trafford, introducing an overnight dispersal order for the area.

The order covered the area between the M60, the A57, the M6, M56, and the A5103 and was authorised by the Silver Chief Inspector.

Brought into effect at 12.50am and lasting for six hours, it gave officers more authority to make groups of people leave the area.

Then at around 2am, GMP announced a 24 hour closure notice had been issued on an address in Altrincham.

It come after officers had been called several times about an illegal gathering and anti-social behaviour at the home, and occupants chose not to listen to the police when they attended.

The order bans anyone who doesn't own or live at the adress from entering. A fine was also given to the resident when the party was broken up.

Action from officers comes as police try to clamp down on people having last-minute parties before a ban on social gatherings of more than six people indoors and outdoors in England comes into place from Monday.

The government is taking the action after the number of daily positive Covid-19 cases in the UK rose to almost 3,500 on Saturday.