Big Green Gathering canceled due to police & district council pressure

south west | media and culture | news report Sunday July 26, 2009 17:49 by adelayde

The Big Green Gathering 2009, which was due to be held on Fernhill Farm from Wednesday 29th until Sunday 2nd has been today officially canceled after the directors decided to hand the licence for the event back to Mendip District Council, after they were threatened with the prospect of a High Court injunction being issued against the directors and owner of Fernhill Farm this coming Monday 27th. The licence was handed back to the directors on the legal advice that the Big Green would not have a chance of winning the High Court hearing.

The Big Green Gathering 2009, which was due to be held on Fernhill Farm from Wednesday 29th until Sunday 2nd has been today officially canceled after the directors decided to hand the licence for the event back to Mendip District Council, after they were threatened with the prospect of a High Court injunction being issued against the directors and owner of Fernhill Farm this coming Monday 27th. The licence was handed back to the directors on the legal advice that the Big Green would not have a chance of winning the High Court hearing.

The official line from the Big Green Gathering is that the local police and Mendip District Council have made a clear and consistent effort to 'break' the Big Green Gathering, something that they have managed to do today. Word in the field is that the police had prior knowledge of the injunction, some say up to three weeks ago. This would mean that having prior knowledge they allowed many people to run up expenses and costs that will most likely lead to the financial ruin of many individuals and certainly the festival itself.

Shortly prior to the event, the appointed security company, Stuart Security demanded a 60% down-payment and then 40% up front before the event. The Big Green could not initially provide this, due to cash flow before the event and so a loan from Triodos Bank was obtained in order to finance this and meet the licence requirements. However, despite this, due the fact the director of Stuart didn't receive a cheque in time, Stuart contacted the police to say they wasn't going to be the security company for the Big Green. They then dallied in giving the Big Green an answer as to whether they were going to do it and due to this dallying coupled with the Big Green's need to find a security provider to meet the licensing requirements laid down by the council, the Big Green then found an alternative security company, Coast to Coast.

It seems apparent that the change in security company from Stuart Security (who are reported to have a 'special relationship' with the police, backed up by the accusation that many Stuart employees are ex-police officers), was however not satisfactory for the council, who then came up with a host of other demands in order to meet the licence, which had already been issued, at the last minute (see attached letter from the council to the directors of the Big Green), something which the Big Green made every effort to meet.

The last straw was that a technicality that led to the Big Green believing that they'd loose the High Court case for injunction was to do with the road closure order. The word is that the person in the Council department responsible for these order who was going to issue a 7 day order, had pressure put on them by the Council and the police to refuse the order.

It is pouring with rain here. There are many directors and crew who are facing financial ruin due to the actions of the police and Mendip District Council.

Please note that the above are all notes based on hearsay and cannot be confirmed or taken as an official statement on the part of the Big Green Gathering Company Ltd or any of its associates or contractors.

Letter from council to Big Green regarding injuction. 0.5 Mb