BNP slam cops over protesters

The organiser of the British National Party's annual Red, White and Blue festival has blasted authorities for failing to charge people arrested for protesting against last year's event.

Party member Alan Warner is set to host the event for the third consecutive year on his land off Codnor Denby Lane in August and several groups have stated their intentions to protest against it.

Last year, police arrested 36 people protesting against the event but no charges were ever brought and Mr Warner thinks this will encourage opponents of his party to cause trouble at this year's event on August 15 and 16.

He said: "They came up here last year causing trouble and blocking roads and yet none of them were charged. They arrested 33 people and did not charge one of them, if that had been a member of the BNP they would have been locked up. It's amazing that in this country people can cause trouble, throw bricks at the police, block roads and not be charged. "They know now they can come and cause trouble and nothing is going to happen to them. They certainly should not be allowed to come down this lane, they should be kept on Codnor Market Place."

Representatives of the Amber Valley and Derby Campaigns Against Racism and Fascism and Notts Stop the BNP campaign met in Heanor at the end of June to discuss their plans.

A spokesman for the groups said: "Our aim is to have a peaceful protest and through force of numbers show the strength of feeling against the BNP. We want to show them they are not welcome here. The people arrested last year were never charged, but that is not the form of protest we are interested in. We want a peaceful protest, but also one that is visible to the BNP and people going to the festival who may have been drawn into the orbit of this party without fully understanding what it is about. We are in discussions with Derbyshire Police about how we can do that."

A spokesman for Derbyshire Police said: "We took our evidence regarding last year's arrests to the Crown Prosecution Service and they decide if there is enough to make a charge. It is not our decision. We are continuing to work with protest groups who are thinking of attending and trying to make sure it all passes smoothly withour incident."

Derbyshire County Council has announced it will once again be closing a number of public footpaths around the site when the festival takes place.

Ripley and Heanor News