Yes ,some valid points taken Keith. However human behaviour is very unpredictable in all forms of walks of life.
We would certainly, in a "perfect world" wish people could hold their drink when out simply socialising, but many often "normal " people turn into vicious drunks when they drink too much while out socialising . Should the answer then be ,putting a draconian total ban drinking or socialising ,to counter anything such of that antisocial behavior ever happening in the future ??.
They banned smoking in public places a few years ago . While it solved the smoking in public places issue ,it also killed off thousands of peoples livelyhood s because look at how many pubs have had to close down now in the UK through people not going to pubs now, because they cannot have a smoke with their Pint ? There are only so many "rules and regulations" you can apply before it turns to oppression .
By one or more councils giving permission it just goes to show that not every council sees itself as judge & jury against certain hobbies which incidentally is not what they are put in place to decide in a public place, if in general ,any hobby is causing little or no harm to anyone else, and as far as Metal detecting being banned,they have tried to ban metal detecting since 1977 and STILL havn`t achieved banning it.Metal detecting is no different to any other hobby insofar as if people that do the hobby act in a responsible and well being manner ,they will be no problem in allowing it in a public place such as a Public park.
anyway are you really suggesting that any " Government " ,would consider backing a ban on metal detecting just to gain support for them in an election

They`d have to be pretty desperate measures, to have to go down that route if they did.
