A number of Jesmond students who were among the group of ‘around 300‘ revellers who defied government lockdown restrictions last week to party in the snow on Cow Hill, Town Moor spoke exclusively to JesmondLocal.

Footage emerged on social media of the incident, which showed large crowds of “mostly young people” who appeared to not be social distancing from each other, becoming rowdy and consuming alcohol.

One Jesmond student who attended the event, and asked for anonymity, told JesmondLocal: “I saw people were sledging down there and it looked good”. He says that he attended with his household only and stuck to social distancing, maintaining “I’ve not really done anything wrong.”

Northumbria Police were made aware of the event shortly after the crowds gathered.

The Jesmond student said: “The police had been sitting at the bottom of the hill for most of the time that we were there”. He says when it got dark four more police officers arrived, “turned on all their torches and tried to go up the hill” to disperse the crowds.

A spokesperson for Northumbria Police said: “We do not believe this to have been an organised gathering but this type of behaviour is completely unacceptable and undermines the efforts of the majority of people in our region who are making daily sacrifices to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.”

Another Jesmond student told JesmondLocal: “I went up on Friday with a few people and it was pretty busy up there but all the groups were separated at this point. There were a lot of families and children there, it wasn’t just students.”

She says: “It wasn’t an organised thing, at the end of the day it was just people out trying to have a nice time in the fresh air. It’s obviously better to be doing that than having a party inside.”

The student maintains that in the hours she was at Cow Hill, people were staying in their household groups and not mixing with others.

“The photos on the news were all taken from the bottom of the hill looking up. Obviously if you take a picture of a crowd from afar they look really bunched. If you were up there on the hill there was a lot of space between each group.”

George Beaver, a Jesmond resident told JesmondLocal he was “lost for words” when he saw videos of the event on social media. He said “it is disappointing because we’re all struggling in this and we all have to be in it together.”