The pub crawl takes about 15 pubs, depending on who you ask, starting at Woodies Ale House, on Otley Road in Headingley and ending a few miles south in the city center – if participants get that far, which they usually don’t. For as long as the tradition has existed, locals have enjoyed seeing the mismatched Super Mario characters, the teams of sexy lifeguards and the odd 1.5m rugby player dressed as Marge Simpson. But now anyone tackling the Otley Run may have to deal with more than just a hangover afterwards – they could also be hit with a £1,000 fine. Leeds City Council has said it will start cracking down on anti-social behavior in rowdy after complaints from residents escalated. “It was a fun thing and a well-known feature of the area, and it didn’t cause too much trouble,” said Al Garthwaite, local councilor for Headingley, Hyde Park and Woodhouse. “As a councillor, I had no complaints about it.” But since the pandemic, the number of boring, costume-clad groups has exploded and a different – and more annoying – demographic has joined, causing constant and sometimes serious problems for those who live and work in Headingley. Garthwaite said: “The groups seem to be larger and we find that they are male-only groups, mature men from their late 20s to their 50s.” He said these groups, many of which are stag parties, are starting to come from all over the UK on organized trips. British Transport Police reported that more people got off the train drunk earlier, he added. “They basically create a trail of destruction. These men are probably Mr. Nice Guy at home, they probably have families, jobs, but they turn into Mr. Nasty Guy when they’re all together, out to get drunk.” Subscribe to The Guardian Headlines UK A roundup of the top morning headlines emailed straight to you every day of the week Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Olympia Agorini, manager at Box, one of Headingley’s liveliest bars, said in her four years there she had noticed a difference. “Saturdays have always been busy, but now the clientele is tough. There are a lot of middle aged men from London and they don’t behave. They don’t care about being kicked out because they’re going back to London. They have nothing to do with Headingley and no respect for the area. It shouldn’t be happening.” Problems reported to the council and the police include littering, broken windows, vomiting, public urination and more serious crime such as harassment of retail and bar staff, sexual harassment of pedestrians and flashers, including around children. Garthwaite, who is the lead adviser on ending violence against women and girls, said she had also had reports of many similar incidents and had been meeting with local residents and Leeds North West MP Alex Sobel to discuss anti-social behaviour. “A lot of young women have told me they don’t go to Headingley especially on a Saturday, so they don’t go to the shops, they won’t go where they live.” Otley Run participants – in the past, running has been seen as ‘a fun thing’ by locals. Photo: NB Press A student reported being so harassed by a group of men that she ran into traffic to escape them, while an elderly woman said the men blocking the streets meant she no longer went to the cathedral service on Saturday night. Pubs now turn away the drunkest groups. The Original Oak, one of the larger pubs on the route, turned away 98 people last Saturday and were given a radio to alert others further down the route of the worst offenders. Garthwaite said no one was trying to cancel Otley Run, but more needed to be done to protect residents. “Police have applied for funding to increase patrols. The police do patrol, but their numbers have been severely reduced, and if they are called in an emergency, they are not there to stop things from happening,” he said. A council crackdown would be possible because the area is covered by a public spaces protection order. Although not previously implemented, the council and police have the power to fine anyone causing a public nuisance of up to £1,000. Councilors are also considering a common code of conduct for all bars to enable other customers to report bad behaviour.
