THE BNP has been refused permission to use a venue in Swanley to hold a party meeting.

Paul Golding, BNP councillor in Swanleys St Mary, says he tried to book a large expensive conference room at The Woodlands in Hilda May Avenue but has been “banned” by Swanley Town Council.

He says he wanted a room in November to hold around 150 people but the Labour-run council refused to allow the meeting to go ahead.

The council had concerns it may lead to protests against the meeting taking place.

Cllr Golding said: “It's absolutely outrageous in the extreme.

“They are aware all their support is coming over to us in droves, they are terrified of losing their remaining seats to the BNP.

“I'm sure they're realising we have enormous support in the area.”

He added: “We don't see why they can arbitrarily ban a party from holding meetings especially when the political party they are banning has elected members in the area.

“If the roles were reversed and the BNP had banned a meeting of Labour in Swanley, the whole political establishment would go into a frenzy.”

The leader of Swanley Town Council, Councillor Robert Woodbridge, says there were concerns about possible protests and negative publicity for Swanley Banqueting, the council department which runs the venue.

Labour councillor Cllr Woodbridge said: “Yes we did refuse to allow Cllr Golding from using our premises and this decision was taken at the informal leadership group meeting because of the potential conflict that may have been attracted not necessarily by the BNP party members, but perhaps by others who may have wished to protest against the meeting.

“In addition, the leadership considered the potential for conflict and the potential issues including the potential for adverse publicity for Swanley Banqueting that this may cause at a time when banqueting colleagues are doing their utmost to secure bookings.”

Recently Cllr Golding organised a campaign getting BNP supporters to contact News Shopper's advertisers and threaten to boycott their businesses while they advertised in the paper.

Cllr Golding called us “lying scumbags” and “a vilifying left-wing gutter newspaper”, yet despite this contacted us again to complain about the town council’s decision.

He said: “If you're going to beam nonsense out to people at the drop of a hat how can we fight back?

“I don't trust any journalist.

“One of the reasons (I called you) is to see if you will take it seriously.”

Lib Dem parliamentary spokesman for Sevenoaks, Alan Bullion, said: “Local Lib Dems are opposed to the BNP application to hire Swanley banqueting facilities and support the refusal, as we are concerned that it would be used for a rally.”