Karen Lee, Lincoln City Councillor for the Carholme Ward, has reacted to the news that Carnage will be staging another event in Lincoln.
In a letter to The Linc, Cllr Lee clarified her position: “I am not opposed to responsible drinking, by students or anyone else for that matter. A big part of the experience of going to university is about the social side of it, and I quite enjoy a night out myself!
“What I do object to is binge drinking and irresponsible behaviour by people whose only reason for promoting an event like Carnage is to make a profit. I also think that charging a fair amount of money for a not very good tee shirt is a bit of an opportunistic thing to do… Binge drinking is dangerous to those who do it and can have serious consequences.”
Cllr Lee said she is speaking as “a person who has been democratically elected to represent people who live in an area with a high student population,” and that the area she represents “has a proven track record of suffering as a result of people behaving in an anti-social manner.”
She added: “When people have had their night out at such an event they have a record of proceeding home, usually very noisily, and waking the rest of us up. We have to get up the next morning and work — the noisy drunks don’t.”
The only reason the last Carnage event “did not cause a huge amount of bother” was due to the rainy weather that night, according to Cllr Lee.
“I would just ask those who read your articles to ask themselves [some] questions. What do you think those who stage such an event wish to achieve? Is just for profit or do they have some altruistic motives? Do they contribute some of their excessive profits to University charities, student groups etc? Perhaps make donations to local charities?
“Do you think they give a thought to the aftermath of such an event? Do they think that it is acceptable for people to be disturbed by drunks in the early hours? Have they even bothered to ask us what we think? The Carholme Forum is a pretty well publicised local group,” Cllr Lee said.
She also asked what positives could Carnage add to the work put in by community stakeholders in the previous months, to bring the community together, culminating with the Carholme Gala.
“The University, along with local residents, just put on a local gala. We worked on it for six months and it was a huge success. It has created some really good friendships between local residents and students, though the reality is that the university and locals work together all year round,” she said.
The university and the Students’ Union have both declined to reply in time for the publishing of this story.
UPDATE 22.09:
The University of Lincoln and Students Union have put out a joint statement following the publishing of this story:
“The University of Lincoln and the Students’ Union (SU) do not support or promote Carnage, or any event encouraging ‘binge’ drinking, which may lead to unsafe or anti-social behaviour.
Both the University and the SU have a greater level of care and duty to the students of Lincoln and are proactive in educating about the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption, along with the effects it can have on their personal safety when they are out socially.
We advise students that the excessive consumption of alcohol can be damaging academically, socially and emotionally – and have long term consequences for their health and well being.”
The University’s bars will not be participating in the Carnage event.”
I agree with what councillor Karen Lee has said regarding Carnage events as binge drinking brings out the worst effects of alcohol. This has been the case of Phil Laing, a student of Sheffield Hallam University, which has disgraced students there. He was caught by camera urinating on a recent laid wreath placed on the War Memorial sited in Sheffield. This was due to consuming too much drink on an organised Carnage pub crawl.
This was taken from a leading newspaper…
Binge drinking is causing so much harm in our modern day society and in previous years affected residents living in the West End of Lincoln. I myself, was a former student of the 1960s. I did s pub crawl from Romford to Brighton by car with 8 students wedge in a Ford Zodiac. We took turns in drinking and driving, chased by police panda cars, lost the police in villages coming back from the last pub, and to us students then, that was fun. Seat belts were not fitted in cars in the 60s and neither were there many cars on the road in those bygone days.
But times have changed and if that occurred these days, well, what would happened? Carnage on the roads!
Eh? There’s nothing wrong with the t-shirt. It’s meant for people to write on etc., and is good as a souvenir to say ‘I was there on that night out’. That’s its purpose. Plus, who’d want something quality to go out in when it’s only going to get booze and drawings over it anyway?
What they contribute to is a bangin night out where we can all get together and have some fun. It’s only like once a year; the same as Halloween and New Years; everyone goes out and gets smashed on them nights with people having to go to work the next day so whats the diffrence?
Who cares what thier motives are anyway, as long as we have a good time. Isn’t that what it’s all about?