THE police will be asked about claims of noisy and anti-social night time behaviour in Minehead town centre following two complaints from a resident claiming that ’appalling shouting, screaming, hooting and hollering’ took place most weekends, often until 3am.

As reported in last week’s Free Press, North Hill resident Christopher Miller had asked Minehead Town Council for an ’urgent response’ to a problem he said was damaging the town’s reputation as a tourist centre and making residents’ lives a misery.

Several councillors said that no serious anti-social behaviour had been brought to their attention and in a statement Avon and Somerset police said that officers on duty in the town at the times Mr Miller mentioned had reported nothing out of the ordinary.

But this week Mr Miller sent a second report to the council claiming that further late-night disturbances occurred last weekend (January 22-23). He said: "My household was woken suddenly at 1.30am by the sounds of screaming, shouting and general public disorder, all accompanied by the sound of vehicles with exceptionally loud modified exhausts.

"All of this distressing disturbance seemed to emanate from the Avenue and down to the seafront. This is full-blown disorder in our streets and we as a community need to have zero tolerance. Enough is enough."

At their meeting on Tuesday, town councillors agreed to invite Mr Miller and a police representative to the March meeting for a detailed discussion on the situation. Putting forward the proposal, Cllr Terry Venner said: "These are very serious allegations and we must find out exactly what is happening.

"We get a crime report from the police every month but we have not actually seen an officer at our meetings for at least a year. We would also like to give Mr Miller an opportunity to put his case to us. A face-to-face discussion with all concerned would seem the sensible way of tackling this problem."