Bulldog Bash to go ahead

Stratford District Council turn down Warwickshire Police request to halt biker festival

THE BULLDOG BASH will go ahead next month, following Stratford District Council's decision to turn down an official Police request to review the event's licence.

In an ongoing battle with the Bash's organisers, Police asked local authorities to stop the event from going ahead as they feared an escalation in trouble between rival biker gangs., following the death of Hell's Angel Gerry Tobin, who was shot dead on the M40 after leaving the event in 2007.

Last year seven men from the rival Outlaws gang received life sentences for his murder.

Assistant chief constable Bill Holland said: "Warwickshire Police will do all within its power to protect communities from harm, including limiting opportunities for organised crime groups to fundraise within the county. We will also ensure that all those with a responsibility for facilitating, managing or contributing to, or receiving benefit from the Bulldog Bash understand the nature of the event they are supporting and that they make informed and publicly accountable decisions based on this knowledge."

A spokesman for the Bulldog Bash said: "We were always confident of a positive result and we would again ask the police to work with us and other agencies to ensure a safe successful event as we have done over the past 22 years."