POLICE officers were expected to come under severe criticism last night for their lack of action over an illegal rave in Savernake Forest.

Several people including Joan Davies, chairman of Savernake Parish Council, had asked for the issue to be discussed at a meeting last night of the Kennet Area Police/Community Consultative Group.

Critics of the police say they are not satisfied with how the police dealt with the rave that was allowed to continue uninterrupted for 48 hours over the May Day bank holiday weekend.

Families over a wide area were kept awake for two nights from the seven mobile stages that had been set up near the Eight Walks in Savernake Forest.

Among those expected to be critical of police at last night's meeting was the Earl of Cardigan, whose family owns Savernake Forest.

Lord Cardigan has maintained that officers did little to prevent the rave continuing although he, as landowner, gave them authority to take action to bring the event to a halt.

This week Lord Cardigan said he had seen a letter sent by police to Mrs Davies saying "things will be better in future because of numerous meetings that have taken place with the landowner".

He said there had been no meetings between him and police and there had been no satisfactory replies from police to letters sent by the Devizes MP Michael Ancram and others.

Yesterday Mr Ancram confirmed that although he had written to Chief Constable Elizabeth Neville he had received what he regarded as an unsatisfactory reply from one of her officers.

Mr Ancram said: "I am not satisfied with the reply because it does not answer my questions about why the police did nothing to halt the event on the second day. I am writing back to the chief constable."

Sir Nigel Thompson, vice chairman of Mildenhall Parish Council, also said he was unhappy with his response from the police as to why officers failed to halt the rave and seize the amplifiers.

At the time, police said they did not step in and break up the rave because they feared it would lead to violence.