‘We live in UK’s most dangerous village and are too scared to go out after 6pm’

Residents of a once-quiet seaside town say they are now scared to leave their homes past dinnertime thanks to gangs of drunken thugs.

The coastal village of Ingoldmells in Lincolnshire was once a popular destination for families on holiday and older locals say crime used to be virtually non-existent.

But as the nearest manned police station is three miles away in central Skegness, the town's inhabitants say day-drinking yobs and travelling criminals now roam the streets.

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Gary Reynolds, 68, told the Sun: "I do not go out in the evening. We like to be home by 6 or 7 o’clock before the troublemakers come out.

"We see police cars going up and down all the time dealing with problems everywhere. These yobs are paying £2.20 a pint. So they are sitting in the bar getting blitzed all day. Then they come out to cause trouble."

Café owner Donna Brudenall, 61, said: "There are more people working in McDonald’s here than there are police officers. We have had a couple of murders here over the last few years and a couple of rapes."

Skegness as a whole is rated the most dangerous small town in Lincolnshire and has a crime rate 120% higher than the national average, CrimeRate reports.

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Meanwhile, violent and sexual offences are the most common type of crime committed in Ingoldmells, with 538 reported incidents in the last year, according to the website for national policing in England.

In a bid to tackle the crime the village has rolled out Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) to support cops policing the streets.

But while locals say this has helped, with PCSOs becoming familiar with the area, they claimed there were plans to replace them with more full-time police officers.

John Evans, 70, a member of Caravan Park Watch, said: "I would like to know which apple tree they are going to pluck these offices from since the PCSOs were supposed to supplement them in a more cost effective way."

The Daily Star has contacted Lincolnshire Police for comment.

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