Multi Agency RockNess 2011 Round up

As RockNess draws to a close for another year and campers make their way home, multi agency partners are pleased to report another RockNess festival has passed without any serious incident.

Police report that there have been a total of 243 positive drugs searches over the duration of the event, three of which in relation to drug dealing offences.

Northern Constabulary had a total of eleven reported crimes over the weekend for offences including breach of the peace, assault and theft which is slightly reduced in comparison to last year. Event Commander, Stevie Mackay said: "On the whole it has been a largely positive event. We had slightly higher numbers of people attempting to take drugs into the event, which is disappointing given the warning messages we issue prior to RockNess, but these numbers are still low when looking at the numbers that attended and we worked hard to reduce the amount of drugs available at the event.

"We, as with previous years, have experienced low levels of reported crime which is largely to do with the fact that everyone came to enjoy the event and played a part in keeping themselves and others safe.

"The event is still ongoing for us until everyone has left the site and returned home safely, so I reiterate our previous message and encourage no one to drive until they are fit and able, as we will be targeting drink drivers leaving the event."

Event Medical Commander, Iain MacKay of the Scottish Ambulance Service said: "It has been a very good weekend with no serious medical incidents. We've managed to reduce the numbers taken onwards to Raigmore Hospital for medical attention to 14 people, the majority of which for treatment to injuries. The total number of people treated on site was 533, which is similar to last year, 288 of which were treated in the field hospital.

"As with last year we saw there was a large number of people being treated for excessive alcohol consumption and injuries relating to this, and although we don't have a final figure, we feel there was a reduction in drug related medical matters which is in part due to the stemmed supply through police work."

The Highland Council Environmental Health and Building Standards Officers have had significant involvement leading up to and throughout this year's event. 147 Food Safety and Health & Safety proactive visits to the traders and concessions identified generally good standards with minimal intervention required. Regular checks of site infrastructure and noise monitoring within and out with the arena were also undertaken.

Gregor MacCormick, Environmental Health Officer, The Highland Council, said: "There has been good cooperation and liaison with the event organisers and partner agencies which has helped the Council to fulfil it's regulatory role."

Alex McKinley of Highland and Islands Fire and Rescue Service said: "We would like to praise those who were camping at the event as we found the majority of people followed the fire safety advice and were using the designated cooking areas and food vendors. This kept the risk of fire to a minimum which meant we saw very few incidents over the weekend.

"We had a high profile presence at Rockness with number of Fire Officers conducting tours of all areas of the venue to proactively prevent fires happening and were on hand engaging with the community to give fire safety advice. Those minor incidents that happened were dealt with quickly and meant no one was injured as a result."

Police are inviting comment from those who attended the event and are encouraged to email feedback @ northern.pnn.police.uk.