A High Court judge has confirmed his order to stop Broadwater Day in Stevenage going ahead this weekend.

An interim injunction to stop the two-day event in Shephalbury Park, sought by Stevenage Borough Council, had been granted yesterday (Thursday, August 22).

But Mr Justice Jeremy Mould had offered a return hearing today to allow James Smith – chair of event organisers Longmeadow and Bragbury End Residents Group (LBERG) – time to seek legal advice.

During the dramatic return hearing, Mr Smith accused the judge of “getting short-tempered with me”, and said he had not “given [him] an opportunity to speak properly”.

Mr Smith claimed the judge, during yesterday’s hearing, had made “a really flippant comment that I found degrading”.

He was referring to a comment Mr Justice Mould had made when Mr Smith had referred to a previous court ruling in his argument.

The judge had said: “You’re not as unprepared for this meeting as you suggested, are you?”

In his concluding remarks today, the judge said the comment “was not intended to be in any way derogatory or offensive to him [Mr Smith], but to commend him.

"I fear he may have taken that comment the wrong way … I regret that that was the case,” he added. “I sincerely hope I haven’t made comments [Mr Smith] found degrading.”

Mr Smith again left the hearing early. He said he was “needed elsewhere” and had interrupted the judge on a number of occasions – including to correct his pronunciation of Shephalbury Park.

At one point, it led Mr Justice Mould to respond: “You’re not going to get anywhere with me [or] in any court … if you talk over the judge.”

Mr Smith had pressed the judge “to give direction as to what a garden fete is” – he had argued the planned event was a garden fete and therefore exempt from licensing regulations.

Mr Justice Mould said it was not for him to do so, but the planned event was “plainly beyond” the scope of a garden fete.

He added that Mr Smith was not going to “provoke” him into providing a definition, and said he was “becoming increasingly impatient with [Mr Smith’s] approach”.

Mr Smith said he had been unable to obtain legal advice, citing the costs involved. He also indicated to the judge that he would seek to take the case to the Court of Appeal.

The council brought the case because of what they said was a “potential risk to public safety” caused by a lack of planning and “proper risk assessment”.

They cited further issues including a lack of public liability insurance and a lack of traffic and waste management plans.

Mr Smith argued that the council’s response was disproportionate, that his human rights were being breached and that the planned event was a garden fete. He maintained the situation had been caused by “the late submission by the council”.

Mr Smith had notified the council of the event in February and sent the authority an event plan and risk assessment in July.

Council officers raised “significant concerns” with the plans and, after giving Mr Smith until 13 August to change them to their satisfaction, notified him on 14 August they would not be granting permission for the event to go ahead. Had they come to us earlier with all these concerns, we could have addressed them,” Mr Smith said.

He claimed the event had “a lot of community support online”, but that more stall-holders and music acts had pulled out “after the bad press”.

The judge said his decision was “in the interests of public safety, in the interests of regular users of the park”, and in the interests of nearby residents. He said it would have been a “dereliction of the council’s duty” not to have “insisted” that the issues they raised were resolved.

Stevenage Borough Council has published the terms of the injunction on their website, as well as on notices around Shephalbury Park.

The injunction ordered the Facebook page for Stevenage Broadwater Day Group to be updated with a notice that the planned event has been cancelled. As of 5pm on Friday, 23 August, no notice had yet been issued, though the Facebook page for the event itself had been deleted.

The court will make a decision at a later date on who should pay the costs of the case. Stevenage Borough Council has applied for the costs of the case to be borne by the defendant.