Outbridge claims that, up until late last week, organisers were still in negotiation with the authorities and were given the impression that things were progressing, which meant that they continued to spend money on the event.
Yet at an official meeting between police and BGG directors yesterday (26 July), Oubridge claims chief inspector of Avon and Somerset Police, Paul Richards, admitted the decision to shut down the event was "political" and was made more than a week ago.
"If they knew they were going to cancel the event, we can only conclude that this drive to increase expenditure appears to be a deliberate attempt to bankrupt the Big Green Gathering," said Oubridge who believes the event's appeal to green activists and protesters could be a more realistic reason for its closure.
In his defence, Richards said: "We went above and beyond the definition of a ‘responsible authority' in a bid to work with organisers to try to ensure that the event could go ahead, but ultimately both the police and the council had too many concerns that the organisers could not address in time.
"No one likes to cancel an event that thousands of people wanted to attend and were looking forward to, but without adequate arrangements, the police and council would be failing in their duty if the safety of the public was put at unnecessary risk."
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