Bulldog Bash policing discussed

People living near to the site of an annual bikers festival are being asked to put concerns to police at a meeting.

In previous years Warwickshire Police has opposed staging the Bulldog Bash over fears about possible violence.

Assistant Chief Constable Bill Holland is scheduled to attend a Shipston and Stour Community Forum meeting in Lower Quinton on Tuesday evening.

Organisers of the festival at Long Marston airfield say they have run it safely for 23 years.

This year's Bulldog Bash, at the site near Stratford-upon-Avon, has been organised for between 12 and 15 August.

The main issue for discussion at Tuesday's meeting at Quinton and Admington Village Hall would be the arrangements for policing the festival, Warwickshire County Council said.

In August 2009 Chief Constable Keith Bristow said the police operation had succeeded in protecting those who attended.

Police tried to have the event's licence revoked, citing concerns about "heightened" tension between the Hells Angels and a rival gang, the Outlaws.

They feared tension following the murder of Hells Angel Gerry Tobin after the event in 2007 and a riot at Birmingham Airport in 2008.