THE Earl of Cardigan says police were powerless to act over a rave in Savernake Forest, not as alleged because he was unavailable, but because no offences were being committed.

In the Gazette last week it was reported that more than 250 revellers had converged on the forest on September 21.

The article said: "Police found themselves powerless to act as they were unable to contact anyone from the Savernake Estate or Forest Enterprise who jointly own and run the forest."

This week Lord Cardigan said his absence was not the reason why police were powerless to act.

He said: "Just because the venue was private property, and the owners uncontactable at 2am when the police tried to alert them, did not render the police powerless if any offences were being committed."

Lord Cardigan said the police needed no one's permission to respond appropriately if the law was being broken.

"The police tell me the real reason they chose not to intervene apart from the fact that the law was not being broken was that to justify trying to round up 80-100 police officers at 2am on a Sunday morning would have needed to be a major disturbance being caused and, in particular, the police receiving a very large number of complaints from members of the public, all having their sleep disturbed.

"The police told me that at the time they had received virtually no such calls."

Lord Cardigan said he had co-operated fully with the Forestry Commission's application to the High Court for an eviction order and with its enforcement.