• Home /
• Statewatch Database /
• UK: BNP headquarters decision

UK: BNP headquarters decision

01 July 1995

Environment Secretary, John Gummer, has upheld Bexley Council's enforcement notice refusing the British National Party permission to use their premises, in Upper Wickham Lane, Welling, as their headquarters. The decision: "refuses to grant planning permission for the mixed use of the premises as the BNPs main office, a mail order business and for residential purposes". The BNP originally obtained permission, from the then Conservative run council, to use the premises as a book shop. Once they had moved in the public was refused access and they transformed it into a fortified bunker. It became their organisational headquarters, coordinating their "rights for whites" campaign in south and east London. The Bexley report emphasized "that the use of the premises for the BNP's current purpose is contrary to local plan policies..." The decision means that "the BNP is required to cease the mixed use of the premises within three months...and to remove the "fortification' to the building itself within six months." It is unclear whether the BNP will move from the Welling office, but given the enmity that their presence has created in the area, it is questionable whether the BNP premises could function as an ordinary shop. Bexley Council press release 19.7.95.