Unfortunate news from Oxford.

The local council Health and Environment Committee having received a representation from us, and after acknowledging that there should be no problem with music sessions, and also after having said that they were sympathetic to us, have received a recommendation from their officers that they should stick to the status quo.

Their arguments seems to have been that having phoned around and found that everyone else is requiring licences, so should they. They also checked up on the reports that Milton Keynes had a progressive policy - it seems they have reversed it.

They relied on case law from 1793 (that right!) Clarke vs Serle, which classified members of the public as performers, and then decided that having hassled some landlords to get licences which they did, it wouldn't be fair to allow others to have music without one. They stressed that they do no proactively seek out sessions but if there is a complaint - they will act. They ignored all the information about the European Convention on Human Rights, the principle of compatibility, and so on and adopted a pragmatic approach which was that since they'd been OK on this issue up till now, why change.

The councillors, rather than take an initiative and form policy which was why they were elected, chose to meekly follow what was poor advice from their officers.

Perhaps we will appeal - but it was pointed out to me that no-one else in the area had lifted a finger in support of the issue (apart from our petition of several hundred signatures!)and so perhaps people didn't feel too strongly.

One reason people are reluctant to put their heads over the parapet is that it might draw attention to sessions and cause problems. So samizdat folk sessions are OK because they stay invisible but try to encourage others to take part and that causes problems...

I hope the exaggerated reports of success in Oxford have not raised false hopes. It's clear from our experience in Oxford that we cannot assume that councillors, even if they support us, will have the courage to set policy according to their convictions when given advice from officers. Incidentally, the councillors didn't even bother to inform us of the outcome of the last meeting - we had to ferret around and find out ourselves.

It does seem amazing that after the councillors expressed such support for us, that they could be so swayed by reports (which we have still not seen!) from unelected officers, that they were willing to reverse the position they adopted at the previous meeting.

They won't stop the music and they don't seem intent on doing that anyway, and they are very unlikely to get away with prosecuting any of the unfortunate landlords who get threatened. I think what this shows is just how spineless some of our local politicians really are.