Blackpool is well-known for its kiss-me-quick bawdy image that has attracted bevies of hen and stag parties to the resort.
But, ever mindful that it remains a family seaside destination, it has called time on the more extravagant behaviour of the young pre-nuptial groups that descend upon the town.
The council plans to use new national anti-lout laws to impose a semblance of order on inappropriate dress or behaviour that has a detrimental effect on the quality of local life and impose on-the-spot fines of £70 to £100.
So no more mooning on the Golden Mile and a little more decorum in the cleavage department.
I’m all in favour of curbing loutish behaviour anywhere, not just in Blackpool. Take a trip on a local bus or a walk down a Huddersfield town centre street on a Saturday afternoon, and you may well hear some choice language and obscenities exchanged as if it were normal banter and badinage.
They deserve instant fines, too.
When stags and hens descend on Blackpool, they are out for a good time and outrageous costumes are part of the unwritten rules of the game.
The behaviour of such groups can be amusing to onlookers. Sometimes it can be offensive.
Policing stags and hens will need sensitive handling because they always want to stage something that will live on as a memory. Was always thus and is not a phenomena of the modern age.
I had my stag night in Blackpool. Not as a tourist, but because I worked there. We drank too much, visited a club of ill-repute, and ended up in Nicki the Greek’s restaurant on Dickson Road, when I heard a whisper that my best man and chums had plans to strip me naked and handcuff me to a lamp-post. In November.
As the bill was being paid, I faked a visit to the loo and did a runner. I was determined not to be classed as having a detrimental effect on the quality of local life and risk a fine.
Besides, it was freezing.
