Fairford Air Tattoo Weekly Bulletin No. 4

After an interesting exchange of emails - we have agreed to meet with the police prior to the event, and we will be cycling around the perimeter on the 23rd June. We will be meeting at the Old Spotted Cow, The Street, Marston Meysey, nr Swindon, SN6 6LQ at 4:00 pm. If you are available on that date please do join us. 

I have attached another copy of the sponsor form - if you can ask local shops in your area to display them and collect money, that would be excellent. Shops are already doing so in Nailsworth. 

See exchange of emails below:

From: Kev Climate Column [mailto:kevsclimatecolumn@btinternet.com] 
Sent: 13 June 2011 21:24
To: Ravenscroft, Mark
Subject: RE: Air Tattoo

Dear Mark,  Thank you for the response below - and your formatting is fine.  I would like to assure you that non-violence is a strict ethos on all environmental protests. As such there will be no risk that any participants on our sponsored cycle ride  will commit serious public disorder, serious damage to property or serious disruption to the life of the community. In fact most of them are middle aged women and would not even dream of contemplating such action.  By contrast, we do hope that you have noticed that your potential charge sheet relates to all aspects of the Air Tattoo. The air show deliberately creates serious noise and disruption for several days across the normally beautiful sky of the Cotswolds disrupting peoples lives and the normal rhythms of nature. In case you haven't noticed, their flier this year states they will be, "the loudest celebration on earth." Many local people recognize how successful they are at this and are forced to leave their homes over the weekend; we will be delighted to introduce you to noise experts such as John Stewart if you need further evidence on noise. I do also hope that you noticed that they have had as a charitable objective for some years the aim of "supporting aviation in all its guises." This industry has done more than any other to subvert the science of climate change, which ultimately will cause more serious damage to property than any sponsored bike ride can manage. Then of course, there is the slight issue of the arms being sold and flaunted, which are also seriously damaging property throughout the planet.  And, finally a sponsored bike ride will not cause that much disruption to the local community as compared to a hundred thousand motorists and the carcinogenic pollution from an air show. Given your concerns above, I will be delighted to join you for a bike ride around the perimeter of the Air Base. I look forward to a pleasurable cycle and hopefully finishing in one of the many very nice pubs in the area, where it will be my pleasure to buy the first pint.  I would propose the afternoon of the 20th June, starting at about 4 pm. Please confirm that this is convenient.  Best regards, thank you for your patience and I look forward to meeting you. Kevin --- On Mon, 13/6/11, Ravenscroft, Mark  wrote: From: Ravenscroft, Mark Subject: RE: Air Tattoo To: "Kev Climate Column" Date: Monday, 13 June, 2011, 19:57 Kevin Conscious i promised a more complete answer today.. I'm doing this on mobile phone, please excuse the lack of formatting. Spontaneous procession, and pre-planned, where a senior police officer or chief constable reasonably believes there may be serious public disorder, or serious damage to property or serious disruption to the life of the community may impose conditions to prevent.. Under section 12 public order act 1986. Section 14 of the same act covers procession in the same way. Procession is defined as 2 or more people with a common purpose in motion. Both are commonly used when there is no pre-agreement on protest, or where what was agreed is deviated from. What i'd like to do is ensure that a no suprises approach ensures we have no need of such legislation whilst you still get the protest you want. The road network around fairford is altered considerably for the air show, and to plan a cycle ride (mass or otherwise) you need to understand/know the amendments. Happy to share this with you, but would like to do so in the context of knowing what you want to do.. Hope this helps for now - let me know what next.. Regards Mark. Sent from my HTC From: Kev Climate Column Sent: 11 June 2011 10:22 To: Ravenscroft, Mark Subject: RE: Air Tattoo Dear Mark,  Apologies for the delay in reply, but I have been consulting with my colleagues and taking legal advice and will confirm next week next course of action.   To confirm I have spoken to Paul, who spoke very highly of you.  I would specifically appreciate if you could elaborate further on public order legislation  ("particularly around assembly and procession") that you refer to in your email. Regards, Kevin --- On Wed, 8/6/11, Ravenscroft, Mark  wrote: From: Ravenscroft, Mark Subject: RE: Air Tattoo To: "'Kev Climate Column'" Date: Wednesday, 8 June, 2011, 9:01 Kevin The chaps name is Paul Trehearne, he is Gloucestershire's branch secretary of the Communication Workers Union (he works for the Post Office). His e-mail is xxxxxxxxx@xxxx their event was Saturday March 12th. If you get no response from e-mail I've also got a mobile number but as I've not spoken to him about this I'd rather not give that out yet (sure you understand). I'm aware of some of the contact you've had previously with Gloucestershire Police, and thank you for not judging me by that. More than happy to take this one small step at a time; and I hope to hear from you soon. Regards Mark. Inspector Mark Ravenscroft Resilience Operations Department  Gloucestershire Constabulary + Police Operations Centre|Bamfurlong|Bamfurlong Lane|Cheltenham|GL51 6ST (  0845 090 1234|Mob:07736084549 8  www.gloucestershire.police.uk From: Kev Climate Column [mailto:kevsclimatecolumn@btinternet.com]  Sent: 07 June 2011 22:51 To: Ravenscroft, Mark Subject: Re: Air Tattoo Thank you for contacting me and explaining your role in supporting protest. Unfortunately, my experience with Gloucestershire Police to date has not been good in terms of legitimate rights to protest. Please be aware that this is in no way a reflection on you.  I will consider your kind offer of a bike ride around the perimeter base, though I would appreciate if you could provide me contact details first from the anti cuts movement. Regards, Kevin Lister --- On Mon, 6/6/11, Ravenscroft, Mark  wrote: From: Ravenscroft, Mark Subject: Air Tattoo To: "'kevsclimatecolumn@btinternet.com'" Date: Monday, 6 June, 2011, 15:52 Kevin I'm the officer charged with security coordination on behalf of Gloucestershire Police at this years air tattoo. Part of that role is the facilitation of protest. I'd like to meet up with you and talk through how we make sure your cycle rides happen trouble free and safely. I'm one of a handful of officers that plan and manage the policing response to protests across Gloucestershire, we like to try and maintain a spirit of 'no surprises'. And in that spirit I'll happily share with you my broad policing plans for the show and our response to protest (pop up, and pre-planned). What I'd really like to do is meet up with you at Fairford Airbase and cycle the perimeter fence together so we can discuss and agree when, where and how you hold your protests without banging heads with traffic regulations (there are a lot of temporary orders in place imposing one way systems on event days that are not usually there), or public order legislation (particularly around assembly and procession). My mobile number is highlighted below - and you now have my e-mail. Please feel free to get in touch and discuss what we do next. I'm happy to supply contact details of the union leader I worked with on the last anti-cuts protest through Gloucester if you want to check me out a little first.. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Regards Mark. Inspector Mark Ravenscroft Resilience Operations Department  Gloucestershire Constabulary + Police Operations Centre|Bamfurlong|Bamfurlong Lane|Cheltenham|GL51 6ST (  0845 090 1234|Mob:07736084549 8  www.gloucestershire.police.uk