Glastonbury Festival 2003

Photograph and text reproduced with the kind permission of Bristol United Press. THE Glastonbury Festival could be saved - if plans to install CCTV cameras to protect neighbouring homes are accepted. Festival founder Michael Eavis, wants to spend £100,000 on 50 cameras, extra police and security to secure homes in the nearby village of Pilton - and he is optimistic that the proposal means Europe's biggest performing arts festival will be allowed to go ahead.
	The future of the festival was thrown into doubt last month when Mendip District Council turned down Mr Eavis's application for a public entertainment licence to hold the annual event in June. Councillors rejected the licence after gatecrashers, unable to break in to the festival site last year because of a new £1 million steel fence, wreaked havoc in the village, stealing property, trespassing and shouting abuse. But Mr Eavis now hopes his £100,000 plan to provide a 200-strong security team to patrol the village and 50 CCTV cameras, planted in previous troublespots, will overcome objections. Festival operations director Melvyn Benn appeared before Wells Magistrates Court at a preliminary hearing of the appeal against the council's refusal to grant a licence yesterday. He said that organisers were already making significant moves to address the council's objections. Under the new plans, CCTV cameras will provide 24-hour surveillance of the village and Mr Eavis will pay for an extra dozen police officers to patrol Pilton and arrest any troublemakers. The firm which handles security for Old Trafford is favourite to win the £100,000 contract to run the village security operation.
But Mr Eavis admits that the new security measures will come at a cost to the charities who receive a share of the festival profits. The ticket price for the festival will remain the same, at £97 with £3 booking fee, with the cost of the extra security being paid for before the remainder of the profits are handed out to good causes.
Mr Eavis said: "I'm quite optimistic that we will get a favourable result from the council. "Last year people were told that they could not gatecrash because of the new fence, but about 100 turned up and were a nuisance. There were problems with trespassing and one person broke into two houses and stole some clothing and jewellery. "We have now done more work on the village security. "We will be using a large number of cameras and we have already got a map of all the places where they will be put up, in previous trouble spots. "Last year was the best year that we had ever had because we had reliable security around the fence. "Our internal security problems had been resolved but the only thing we didn't sort out were the problems in the village.
If we solve this problem than there will be nothing threatening the future of the festival." But Mendip councillor Bill MacKay, of the opposition Tory group, said that the proposed security measures would not be enough. He said: "It does not matter how many police are there - the village of Pilton will still be under siege and the residents resent that. "When the festival is on they are literally stuck in their houses." Mendip District Council is set to reconsider the festival's licence application on February 17. This article was written by Rebecca Camber for Bristol Weekend Post, and first appeared as the cover story on Bristol Weekend Post on Saturday 11th January. This article and photograph are the copyright material of Bristol United Press and are reproduced with their kind permission.

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