A YEAR ago Sussex Police were criticised by residents on the South Downs for not stepping in during an illegal rave.

But these situations are not simple and yesterday morning officers dealt with another rave on The South Downs really well.

You can understand it if residents who are being kept awake all night then want officers to barge straight in and start throwing their weight around.

But when The Argus visited yesterday morning as the revellers dispersed, the ravers were made up of youngsters aged between 16 and 18 – mostly children in the eyes of the law.

One of them was arrested as he left as he was being confrontational with police. But when he calmed down the officers made the excellent decision to de-arrest him.

He was no-doubt getting a little carried away – like teenagers do. A night or morning in the cells would probably have simply made him an even angrier young man – with a chip on his shoulder and a problem with police.

Instead let’s hope he woke up with just a headache and – hopefully – a different point of view.

It is a great shame that the police had to get involved at all as the farmer did a brave thing in speaking to the ravers himself. They should have packed up and left. So yes the party-goers did deserve a ticking off.

But did we really want the cost to the public purse of what amounted to dozens of children being rounded up and taken away by the police?

Instead the ravers were told to remove all rubbish from the area, which the police said was completed. And the farmers were really happy with the way the police dealt with it too.

So as long as nobody got hurt the rave ended without too much trouble.