I ATTENDED part of the Severn Revels Festival in the Forest of Dean. I would congratulate the organisers for putting together such an event. Trade unions are increasingly sponsors of such festivals and have stalls and recruitment teams at most of such events.
What stood out at the Severn Revels was the almost overwhelmingly excessive policing. Determined to spoil the fun, the police came prepared for war rather than a summer music festival.
I recently helped organise a one-day union festival in Dorset where the attendance was more than twice that of the Severn Revels. There were some three or four police officers there for some of the day, mainly on traffic duties. It was a wonderful event. The police at the huge Glastonbury Festival tried hard to be helpful to those attending, dealing with petty pilfering from tents, crowd control, hard drug dealing etc.
At the recent Bristol Community Festival and St Paul's Carnival the police provided a light and friendly presence.
They would not have even dreamed of imposing such a heavy intervention as at Severn Revels. At the last Respect Festival in Eastville, attended by about 10,000 people, the only police present were those on their own recruitment stall! All such festivals have to have their own more than adequate security and stewarding. There was no evidence whatsoever that the Revels would be anything but totally peaceful.
No doubt the police will cite the arrests made for minor drug offences as justification for the swat teams, police compound and helicopter. They could, however, have notched up as many arrests had they sent in the snatch squads at Gloucester Carnival or any event where young people gather to enjoy themselves.
Regardless of the support shown for the festival by the democratic institutions – the Forest of Dean council and MP – the leadership of the Forest of Dean Police have decided that this is an event they don't want. They seem determined to kill it off. I hope they fail!
This sort of heavy handed policing brings the force into disrepute with the very people whose respect the police must win. – Nigel Costley, regional secretary, TUC.