News from the agricultural district.

A news report from the agricultural district which I received from my good friend The General, who as you will soon come to understand, is mightily annoyed at the goings on thereabouts..

STUDENTS of a Daventry school have been left speechless and in tears after Daventry District Council (DDC) forced them to cancel their school concert. The furore over the performance has led to a headteacher threatened with imprisonment or a £20,000 fine and a DDC committee chairman quitting.

The opening night of the musical We Will Rock You at Danetre School, in Hawke Road, was due to take place last night (Wednesday), but because it did not have a temporary event notice (TEN) the show had to be postponed until the end of term. Headteacher David Howell said: "The first I knew of the problem is when a licensing officer and a policeman, without making an appointment, turned up on Monday at the school and spoke to one of the members of staff and said we could not do the show.

"I find it very disingenuous of the district council to behave like this. "It is not a show where we make any profit, we usually make a loss in fact, and I think all of us at the school are very disappointed." The row has led to councillor Ann Carter quitting her role as the chairman of DDC's licensing committee.

She said: "This is not the fault of Daventry District Council. They are simply enforcing the law set down by the Government as part of the 2003 Licensing Act. I can not enforce a law that I do not believe to be right."

"I am fully in support of Danetre School over this matter because anyone wanting to do fundraising will have to apply for a TEN and many people might decide it's not worth the hassle."


Simon Bovey, managing director of DDC, said: "By law, notice of 10 full working days is required for a TEN.

"It is unlawful to authorise an event before the 10 days expires. Unfortunately the school had failed to give this length of notice to both the police and the council and so the application was invalid under the 2003 Licensing Act.

What a bunch of fuckwads. I hope Simple Simon Bovey and his common purpose comrades contract some slow pernicious and incurable brain eating disease.

Pip pip