Pembrokeshire is preparing to get tough on illegal raves. Farmers, landowners and local communities are being asked by the council's public protection department to be vigilant over suspicious vehicles or individuals, who may be looking for sites within the county to hold illegal raves. "We were extremely successful last year in preventing illegal gatherings of individuals holding raves and we don't want them to happen this year," said Gareth Watts, principal officer with the council's public protection division. "We do not welcome those individuals, who are here to break the law and to cause distress and misery to communities. "We have learnt our lessons from the year before when a rave took place in the Dale Peninsula and there is now a much better co-ordinated effort to thwart such events from happening again." The council is asking people to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity, such as an unusual number of vehicles or illegal trespassers possibly doing 'recces' of sites in advance, and to report this directly to the police or the council's public protection division. "We have now in place a multi-agency approach involving the various agencies, NFU, FUW and others and the only way we can tackle these type of events is to act quickly and together, " said Mr Watts. "Recent events at Bettws Mountain, Carmarthenshire over the Whitsun Bank Holiday remind us that these raves can happen anywhere at any time and cause considerable distress and anxiety to people living in those communities. "We know that over the August Bank Holiday in 2004, a determined group of some 300 individuals caused havoc in the Aberdaron area on the Llyn Peninsula, and there is a suggestion that this same group were involved in the Marloes event in 2003." As a way of raising awareness, officers from the county council's licensing team recently took part in a training initiative with officers from Dyfed Powys and South Wales Police to agree ways of dealing with such incidents. Farmers and landowners are being told that they can help themselves in a number of ways such as by ensuring they have accurate, up-to-date plans of all land occupied, including copies of deeds, tenancy agreements and grazing agreements. "They should not invite would-be trespassers onto their land, even if urged to do so, and should make sure they have adequate and up-to-date insurance for all their property," said Mr. Watts. "In addition, they should fence off or be prepared to bar access to their land with anything which is suitable for the purpose and is not likely to cause injury." Members of the public can 'phone the police on 0845 3302000. They can contact the public protection division on 01437 775454 or the county council's out of hours emergency number 01437 775522.