Stop the BNP’s Red White and Blue Festival

Amber Valley Borough Council have announced a provisional date for the Licensing Panel which will consider the BNP’s application for a premises licence for the Red White and Blue Festival. There will be a picket outside organised by the Stop the Red White and Blue ‘festival’ campaign. Watch this space for more details.

Provisional date set for premises licence application hearing for the Red, White and Blue Festival
08 May 2008

The Licensing Panel at Amber Valley Borough Council will provisionally meet on 10 June 2008 at the Town Hall, Market Place, Ripley to consider the premises licence application for the Red, White and Blue Festival.

The premises licence relates only to the provision of licensable activities, namely live and recorded music; anything of a similar description to live music, recorded music or the performance of dance; and the supply of alcohol. The Council is not licensing the event itself, which is due to take place on land at Denby, Derbyshire from the 15th to the 17th August 2008

Following the Full Council meeting on 14 May, the date will be confirmed and further information on the representations received and the procedure at the hearing will be published.

Ends.

For further information contact Lisa Garnham, PR and Communications Manager at Amber Valley Borough Council, on 01773 841655.

According to the website of “The British Nationalist Youth Movement” (basically a subsection of the BNP’s website aimed at “youth”), the BNP, who claim to “have many young people who would be interested in serving their country,” have invited (or at the very least “would like to invite”) the British Army to send a recruitment team to this year’s Red White and Blue festival. The move follows steps by the National Union of Teacher to have the army banned from schools and educational establishments.

Although the relevant article, which appeared on March 25, promised “MORE TO FOLLOW” (capitalisation presumably being used to underscore their sincerity), nothing further has appeared on the site.

The BNP have sought a premises licence from Amber Valley Borough Council for the Red White and Blue festival. Last week, Nottinghamshire Stop the BNP, one of the groups involved in this campaign, lodged an objection to this application. While lodged within the deadline, this objection was rejected, ostensibly because the group was not an affected party. Notts Stop the BNP are currently attempting to appeal this decision, but in the meantime you can read the full details of their extensive objection here.

In their new newsletter, “No Pasaran!” (available in html and as a pdf) Antifa, “a collective of militant anti-fascists committed to opposing the rise of the far-right in Britain and abroad,” have announced that they will be mobilising against this year’s Red White and Blue Festival:

Once again the BNP plan to hold their annual ‘Red, White & Blue’ festival, where fascists from all over the country, and beyond, gather to forge ties, plot racist attacks, sing songs about the ‘Third Reich’, and drunkenly fall about waving their handbags at each other. We at Antifa are determined to do our best to spoil their fun. We will be organising a militant response to the BNP’s ScumFest, to be held in Derbyshire in August. If you would like to join us please contact us at our national e-mail address and we’ll let you know about transport going from your area.

Contacts for Antifa can be found here.

In last week’s local elections, the BNP achieved only limited gains, but anti-fascists cannot be complacent. they now claim 100 councillors, although this figure includes parish, town or community councillors, most of them elected unopposed to this lowest and usually non-political tier of local government. Prior to the announcement of results in London Hope Not Hate noted, “the BNP now appears to have 55 councillors. The party went into the polls with 45, down from 50 immediately after last year’s elections and made a net gain of ten.”

In London, they managed to secure enough notes to get their mayoral candidate Richard Barnbrook elected onto the London Assembly, meaning that one of the fourteen people running London is now a fascist. Closer to home they managed to secure two seats on Amber Valley Borough Council, the authority in charge of the area where the BNP intends to hold the Red White and Blue festival this year. in Heanor East and Heanor West, the BNP’s Cliff Roper and Lewis Allsebrook won the party’s first council seats in the borough. In Heanor & Loscoe, the third Heanor Ward, Paul Snell for the BNP (the chap on the right in this charming picture) received 512 votes, to the victorious Labour candidate’s 513. (Full results for Amber Valley available here.)

The licensing application for the Red White and Blue festival lodged with Amber Valley Borough Council is currently open for consultation. Objections by Nottinghamshire Stop the BNP and a number of unions have been rejected by the council as not being “relevant” under the restrictive definitions in licensing law, a decision that the Notts group at least are seeking to appeal. While we don’t know number, we do know that at least some “relevant” objections have been received and so the license will have to be considered at a public licensing panel as it was last year. It is unclear at this point what the presence of two BNP members on the council will have on this process, but we will certainly be watching carefully to ensure they do not try and abuse their new positions. We also intend to picket the licensing panel and will announce details of this when we find out what date it is taking place on.

Whatever its impact on this years event, the BNP’s successes in Amber Valley should underline the importance of opposing the Red White and Blue festival. While far smaller than some of the original estimates put forward by the BNP, last year’s event attracted several hundred people, including a number of local people. While presented as a weekend of “family fun” (complete with drunken brawls), it also plays an important role in consolidating the party and it is likely that last year’s festival was crucial in building the party’s base in Heanor. This is why opposing the festival is so crucial.

Links: BNP and far-right election results: East Midlands | UK

According to the Derby Evening Telegraph, Alan Warner is planning another festival after Red White and Blue. I wonder if anybody’s told the artists and others involved about his fascist connections?

BNP Festival Host Now Planning Music Event
By Chris Mallett
cmallett@derbytelegraph.co.uk

08:00 - 21 April 2008

Landowner Alan Warner has announced plans to hold a second festival on his Derbyshire fields this summer despite protests that the site is not suitable for large events.

Mr Warner has already vowed to hold the BNP’s annual festival, Red, White and Blue, on his land in Codnor-Denby Lane, Denby, for a second year.

A licensing application to sell alcohol and play music at the event has been lodged with Amber Valley Borough Council

Now, he wants to hold a music festival with overnight camping a month later in September.

Local residents have already sent letters of protest to the council about August’s BNP event and said they would also oppose Mr Warner’s latest plans.

John Lumsden, 65, who lives opposite Mr Warner’s fields in Codnor Denby-Lane, said: “I have already written to the borough council about Red, White and Blue and I would do the same for this music festival.

“At last year’s BNP event people were getting through hedges to bring alcohol in and out, which was against the conditions of their licence.

“People were also urinating in hedges rather than using the on-site toilets.”

Joe Osborne, 69, of Breach Road, said noise from the site had carried on for two weeks after last year’s Red, White and Blue.

He said: “Last time, people were kept awake and a concert would surely be worse. I imagine I will be opposing both events.”

Brian Bentley, 77, of Codnor-Denby Lane, said that, if Mr Warner carried on holding events on his fields, it would lower local house prices.

He said: “The site is completely unsuitable. Imagine if you were buying a house and someone asked you whether this was where the BNP festival and a music festival were held.

“You would say ‘yes’ and they wouldn’t be interested any more.”

Mr Warner said the music festival would provide an alternative to the annual Rock and Blues Custom Show which, up until this year, was held at Pentrich.

The event will now be held at Catton Hall, in Walton-on-Trent, near Burton, because of flooding concerns at the previous site.

Mr Warner said an application for a licence to play music on the site in September had not yet been sent to Amber Valley Borough Council and admitted the event could not go ahead unless this was successful.

He said: “There would be only one stage this year but more could be used in the future.

“It won’t be that big to begin with because we will only be able to pay bands about £1,000 to perform.

“But we will make sure there’s something for everyone - rock, indie, folk, all the genres.”

A police spokeswoman said the force could not comment on Mr Warner’s plans until he had applied to the borough council.

Amber Valley Borough Council have received an unknown number of representations opposing the premises licence for the Red White and Blue festival. While a number of these have been deemed not to be relevant under the restricted definition of relevance used in licensing definition (which excludes political opposition), relevant objections have been received. As a result a Local Authority Licensing Panel will be convened to consider the application. We don’t know the details of this yet, but watch this space.

Details of the licence application can be found here.

Beyond the campaign against the Red White and Blue festival, there’s a wide range of activity against the BNP and other far-right groups. Love Music Hate Racism is one such campaign and seeks to use music to promote unity against racism and fascism. On April 27 they will be holding a carnival in Victoria Park, London to mark the 30th anniversary of the first Rock Against Racism concert.

If anybody from the region is interested in going, the Nottingham and Mansfield Trades Council are organising a coach from Nottingham. Tickets are £5 unwaged/students, £15 others. There’s also transport from Derby, Leicester, Chesterfield and cities across the country.

More coverage in the Derby Evening Telegraph.

BNP vows to stage its festival
08:00 - 05 April 2008

A BNP member has vowed that his party’s annual festival will take place in Derbyshire again this year, even if permission is not granted for alcohol to be sold on site.

An application to play music and sell drink at the Red, White and Blue festival was registered with Amber Valley Borough Council on Tuesday.

But Alan Warner says he will host the event on his land in Codnor-Denby Lane, Denby, on August 15 to 17 - whatever the authority’s licensing panel decides.

He said: “I own the site and I will be holding the event with or without drink or music.”

A spokeswoman for the borough council said complaints made about last year’s festival, held on the same land, will not be taken into account.

She said: “This is a completely new application, which will be considered on its own merits.”

Interested parties now have a minimum of 28 days to comment.

Comments should be sent to the council’s licensing section, Town Hall, Market Place, Ripley, Derbyshire DE5 3XE.

This has appeared on the Amber Valley Borough Council website. Note that the festival will be on 15th-17th August.

Application received for Red, White and Blue Festival
02 April 2008

Amber Valley Borough Council yesterday received an application from Mr Alan Warner to hold the Red, White and Blue Festival on land at Denby, Derbyshire from the 15th to the 17th August 2008.

Responsible authorities and any other interested parties now have a minimum of 28 days from today to submit any representations to the Council.

If no representations are received the application will automatically be granted. If we do receive representations we will hold a hearing within 20 working days, giving those submitting representations the opportunity to raise any issues of concern.

Representations should be sent to the Licensing Section, Amber Valley Borough Council, Town Hall, Market Place, Ripley, Derbyshire DE5 3XE.

Ends.

For further information contact Lisa Garnham, PR and Communications Manager at Amber Valley Borough Council, on 01773 841655.

Notes for editors:
Responsible authorities are Amber Valley Borough Council Licensing Section, Derbyshire Constabulary, Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service, Social Services Child Protection Office, Trading Standards Service, Amber Valley Borough Council Environmental Services Department, Amber Valley Borough Council Borough Development Department and Amber Valley Borough Council Environmental Health Department.