Thugs give golf a bad name in Leicester

So you've volunteered to clean up the local village park which has become littered with discarded Coke cans, crisp packets and god knows what else. You're going about your business when you suddenly notice a Srixon Soft Feel golf ball that wasn't there a second ago. 

You pick it up and figure you'll give it to your golf playing next door neighbour and carry on with your litter picking. Then you notice a Wilson Staff DX3 where you thought an empty can of Stella was. Just as you're thinking you've stumbled into some kind of golf ball graveyard, you look up and see several people some 300 yards away hitting golf balls at you.

A Top Flight XL Staff golf ball yesterday...

This is what happened to a pair of councilors who found themselves under fire as they collected rubbish from Barwell Park in Leicester this week. Councilors Russell Roberts and James Buck were confronted as they were doing their good deed at about 8.30pm on Friday evening. They had already suffered abuse from people they say are 'troublemakers', who are known to the police and were playing golf on the park despite by-laws prohibiting it.

Councilor Roberts said they were slightly out of range in terms of the balls coming in at head height but they still felt threatened and called for the police, only to be told all the police were out playing golf and none were available to attend the scene. 

He said: "We were just trying to keep the park tidy when these two people, who are known to the police, started to threaten us and then hit golf balls at us. When we picked a golf ball and put it in the bin they came up and started threatening us with their golf clubs."

The councilors say threats were made to kill them before they retreated from the park.

Coun Roberts said: "We made two 999 calls because it was a serious situation and we were basically told it was a busy time and there were no available officers. We felt incredibly let down by Leicestershire Police."

A golf ball and driver yesterday...

The pair have lodge a complaint with the Independent Police Complaints Commission over they way their 999 calls were handled.

A spokeswoman for Leicestershire Police said: "Following initial enquiries conducted over the weekend this incident is now being treated as one of public disorder and is currently under investigation."

Sgt Gary Butterworth, beat sergeant for Barwell and Earl Shilton, said: "Due to the high volume of other incidents at the time in the area requiring the deployment of police resources, the man was given personal safety advice and assured a local officer would visit him during the weekend.

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Beef gives golf lesson in the pub!