'It's like the Wild West' - The beautiful village fighting against boozy tourists

A beautiful village has turned into the “Wild West” according to locals who are fighting against an onslaught of pint-guzzling visitors.

Whalley in East Lancashire has an eye-popping 30 licensed premises for a population of just 4,052 with those looking for a boozy day out travelling up to an hour from big towns including Blackpool.

Now locals have spoken out about how it’s impacting their lives as piles of sick leave locals in dusgust and plastic pint cups left by careless visitors.

Resident Peter Foley said: “There must be over 30 licensed premises in Whalley - too many.

“People are coming here from all over the place. Whalley’s a little village but it’s like the Wild West at weekend,” reports the BBC.

His partner Julie added that there are “piles of sick” and empty beer glasses left on the street and another residents who didn’t want to be named said that there are “crowds of women screeching” and “wearing plastic penises on their heads”.

Martin Highton is chair of the parish council - Whalley Parish Council - and lives in the village but thinks the stories about it being overun with boozers are exaggerated.

He said: “It is an issue but I would say that most of these horror stories are completely blown out of proportion.”

Cllr Highton, who has lived in the village for more than 40 years and brought his family up there, says that the village has always been a popular destination - but when he first moved there had just four pubs as opposed to the 30 licenced premises it has now.

He said: “The main issue is that here doesn’t seem to be any control of the licenced premises that are not operating well - and that’s down to the borough council.

“And there’s not much back up from the police.

“It’s really that not so good operators should be held to account and conditions should be placed on their licences - and in the most extreme circumstances they should be shut down.”

Cllr Highton says that the village has grown and that many of the younger people add to the influx of people using the licenced premises.

He added: “Groups do come in that cause the major issues rather than locals.”

Another resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, has lived in Whalley her whole life and now works in a business along the high street. But she feels that any issues are dealt with well by security staff.

She said: “I do go out around Whalley and there is some good security [in operation] and I never see any trouble. If there are problems then they are nipped in the bud.”

She added: “If you have people who are looking for trouble the bar staff are brilliant at getting it away.”

A Lancashire Police spokesperson said: “The licensed premises in Whalley are one of our neighbourhood policing priorities.

“We are working with Ribble Valley Council, residents of the area and licensed premises to find a solution to the issues raised,” reports the BBC.

Express.co.uk has approached Lancashire Police and Ribble Valley Council for comment.