No big bonfire in city of Guy Fawkes’s birth

[Ringo]

There looks to be an attack on unwanted publicity of the characters 'V' and Guy Fawks as York council again fails to grant a licence to one of their main annual firework displays in the 11 hour.

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BONFIRE Night will be a "damp squib" this year for the people of York.

Despite being the birthplace of Guy Fawkes, there will be no big fire for the people of the city to gather around and no big display of fireworks.
The news comes after York City FC announced it would not be holding its annual firework extravaganza because City of York Council has refused a safety certificate for the event.
It was the last large event in the city and attracted up to 1,000 spectators.
Sophie McGill, spokeswoman for the club, said: "Usually we do have an annual display but this year we won't be doing it unfortunately because we can't obtain a licence but it's totally fair enough."
But she said the event will hopefully be held again next year.
Dick Haswell, head of licensing and bereavement services at City of York Council, explained why the licence had not been granted.
He said: "Because the football club was proposing to hold a firework display in a certified sports ground, legally, they had to apply to York's Safety at Sports Advisory Group for a Special Safety Certificate.
"Unfortunately the ground was not large enough to provide the necessary distance between the area where fireworks could fall and spectators."
But Coun Ken King, shadow executive member for leisure and culture, said it was a crying shame.
He said the Liberal Democrats had decided there would not be any fireworks display this year but after the fiasco of 2005 - the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot when spectators were unable to see the fireworks - he was not surprised.
"I think it will be a damp squib for the residents of York," he said.
"I firmly believe that organised displays are the best for enjoying the festivities. They have proved in the past to cut the accident rate and they are much safer."
Gillian Cruddas, the chief executive of York Tourism Bureau, said it was a shame the city was unable to take advantage of the Guy Fawkes story and hold a public event. She confirmed that she had not been told of any public events in the city.
She said: "There's continued interest in York at this time of year, partly because of the Guy Fawkes connection. Bonfire Night is something that's unique to the UK, so our overseas visitors in particular find it fascinating.
"It's disappointing we can't take full advantage of all the interest Bonfire Night generates both from the media and visitors.
"We believe there's a strong demand from residents as well to enjoy a safe public display. It's often a real let-down to our callers when they ring up to find out what's going on in the city to celebrate Bonfire Night."
The tourism bureau understood there were budgetary constraints but appealed for private sponsors to make contact with the council regarding future events.
A spokeswoman for City of York Council said the cost of holding a large-scale display was "extremely high".
Much of the money needed had to be spent on addressing health and safety measures.

York probably draws more revenue from tourism than anywhere else in the north east of England, frequently holds major events including thousands coming to the city for the York races (major horse racing event). The city knows how to handle an event, crowds, traffic you name it that would be the consequence of a firework display. With it's smaller version of the London eye big wheel, its got the perfect stage for the city's firework display to make it large occasion for bringing money into the city, there's no doubt this was set to fail from the start.

The Yorkshire wheel

The powers behind putting the halt to Guy Fawks's festivities become clearer in the following article. The police are shown to have been pulling the strings back in 2005 on the 400th Anniversary of Guy Fawks, stepping in at the last minute to cancel the event under safety grounds, resulting in the cancellation on the city's main firework display, they were later rumbled and caught trying to cover their tracks. Previously to cancelling the event at the last minute, there is now released open dialog between themselves and the city council, this show no mention of any safety concerns they would later use to close down the event.

Comparing notes on York fireworks fiasco

Britain may now have freedom of information, but the Evening Press reveals today how two different organisations - asked for information about York's controversial fireworks display - took very different views on what should be revealed.
York's Guy Fawkes fireworks fiasco generated one of the Evening Press's biggest ever postbags. Readers complained they had missed the display, but also raised serious concerns about health and safety issues.
Wanting to know the background to the City of York Council event - in particular whether police had raised safety concerns in the run-up to November 5 - the paper lodged requests under the Freedom of Information Act for correspondence between the council and North Yorkshire Police. The requests went to the local authority and subsequently to the police.
Copies of numerous emails between police and council officers were supplied earlier this month by the council, without any apparent editing. They resulted in the Evening Press revealing how police repeatedly warned the council of their safety worries before the event, and how people could not lawfully be prevented from using a public footpath across the firing zone at St Peter's School playing fields during the display.
But now the same documents have been supplied by North Yorkshire Police - but with some emails obscured by thick black lines.
The blackout removes the names of email senders and recipients, but also various comments from police and council officers.
For example, all but one paragraph of an eight paragraph email, sent to council officers on October 17 by the police's central area events officer, Paul Maloney, is obliterated.
The copy sent by the council shows that comments blacked out included:
"No mention has been made of the risk of conflict between the public watching events in the city centre and road traffic"
"With less than three weeks to run to November 5, we still do not have any plan of the event with an event manual showing how it will be managed"
"It is therefore crucial that event organisers and contractors are clear as to the legal responsibility that each may have."
However, North Yorkshire Police today defended its response to the request, saying it gave all the information it was asked to supply.
The head of complaints and professional standards, Superintendent Andy Bell, said that in accordance with the relevant legislation, the force released information as requested unless there was a specific reason to prohibit this.
"Such reasons generally refer to information relating to individuals, or information which could cause harm to individuals or the public," he said.
"On this occasion, the request referred specifically to the staging of the public fireworks display. This information was supplied. Other information which did not specifically refer to the original request was deleted."
He added that the claiming of exemptions under the Act was not taken lightly.
"The force follows established national practice carrying out harm and public interest tests as appropriate."
City of York Council declined to comment.

:: Playing fields site was `unacceptable'

A POLICE memo claimed that St Peter's School playing fields were considered "unacceptable" for use as the fireworks firing zone - just five days before Guy Fawkes Night.
The memo, supplied by North Yorkshire Police under the Freedom of Information request, but not by the council, concerned a meeting held at the council's offices on November 1.
It revealed that Monks Cross might provide a viable alternative site to St Peter's, and that Chief Superintendent Tim Madgwick had expressed concerns over people's safety on footpaths in the area.
"This concern also highlighted the problems with the river crossings in the city, and the conflict caused by members of the public trying to gain a vantage point for seeing the fireworks, traffic that will stop on the roads indiscriminately and the inability to maintain a free flow of the roads for emergency service vehicles," it said. "St Peter's School site was considered to be unacceptable for the launch site."
But the council today disputed the accuracy of this claim, saying: "It was not said at any point during the meeting by anyone present that the St Peter's site was `unacceptable for the launch site'."
A spokeswoman said there had been discussion about the appropriate level of stewarding and this had been increased as a result, and there had been agreement that a contingency site should be identified in case the site needed to be switched. "The council subsequently decided that this should be Knavesmire."
A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said the force stood by the memo.

There looks to be a full police operation in swing as surrounding areas of the city also seem to be refused to celebrate the event _http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/search/display.var.1738499.0.village_fireworks_show_scuppered_by_new_health_and_safety_regulations.php

I didn't realise that V for Vendetta was released back in 2005 on the 400th aniversary of Guy Falks. This kind of stuff must really spook the PTB to pull this kind of stunt :). People, this is a glimps into their fearful and very breakable world they live in.

R.