One resident compares the deterrent to being in Guantanamo Bay.
If you’ve been lucky enough to have passed through Bournemouth Coach Station between the wee hours of midnight and 6am recently, you will have heard the sickly sweet sounds of Alvin and the Chipmunks blaring from speakers to help homeless sleepers in the vicinity on their way.
Bournemouth Borough Council have described this method of deterrent as being part of a wider strategy against “anti-social behaviour and rough sleeping, which could cause waiting passengers to feel intimidated.” The choice of the Chipmunks is a change from the bagpipe music that played for the previous six weeks, however unsurprisingly some residents have deemed it “cruel and unnecessary”.
One local Aron Kennedy said: “The only way I can describe it is like how people are held at Guantanamo Bay. If they’re laying down in their sleeping bags and they’ve got this constant music going through their head, it’ll make them go insane.”
Watch and listen to some footage over here.
Source: BBC
