It has been announced that following an investigation into reports of an alleged incident of abusive and threatening behaviour towards a female member of the Stevenage Arts & Leisure theatre door staff, the London & Southern Counties Regional Committee have issued a ban to an individual with immediate effect.

In a press release from Kevin Williams, as Secretary on behalf of the L&SC Regional Committee, it said that the ban also came with a directive to the Brass Band Players Ltd Registry that the individual concerned must not be allowed to reapply for a national registration card until January 1st 2028.

Not permitted

The statement said: "This means that the individual will not be permitted to play with any band at any event requiring the use of national registration cards for the remainder of 2026 and the whole of 2027.

The individuals' band were fully compliant during our investigations and accepted the sanction without question.

However, because they were unaware of the event at the time they were only given a stern warning, but on the understanding as to how they control their players in the future and that they would be subject to more serious consequences should the behaviour of their personnel be brought into question again."

Disrepute

They went on to add: "In the opinion of the Regional Committee, the report of abusive and threatening behaviour significantly brought the contest into disrepute, and by doing so threatened to tarnish the great relationship we have enjoyed with the venue for many years.

We understand that emotions and tension runs high at contests, but unfortunately, incidents of this type have been on the increase in recent times and although still quite rare are not indicative of the band movement in general.

However, the consequences could be disastrous should the venue management decide to withdraw their facilities for our contest in the future and so we had to take significant action to demonstrate how seriously we viewed this appalling behaviour."

we hope this will send a message to all bands that we will continue to operate a zero tolerance approach to any form of unacceptable behaviourL&SC Regional Committee

Goodwill gesture

It was added that as a goodwill gesture, the Regional Committee has offered the venue a sum of money which they can donate to a charity of their choosing.

The statement concluded: "In closing, we hope this will send a message to all bands that we will continue to operate a zero tolerance approach to any form of unacceptable behaviour and will sanction any individual or band if they are found guilty of doing so in the future."