When hundreds of teenagers descended on Southend seafront on the UK’s hottest day of the year, Martin Richardson had his “I told you so” moment. But instead of feeling smug satisfaction, the local business owner was incandescent with rage. Around 3pm on Tuesday, Mr Richarson, owner of the Happidrome Arcade on Marine Parade, had been given “intelligence” that a poster and video were circulating on TikTok about a “rave” on the beach. It included the area’s postcode and instructed partygoers to “bring your own weed, balloons and laughing gas”. The arcade owner knew that this was a “red flag”. Sin…
