A heroic but ultimately doomed mission – the venue details were deliberately released a bit earlier to try and fill up the place with enough people (with the attendant risk the OB could call the line as ell and turn up there quicker)- although also some people were slightly careless on open message boards.
However, TVP have had the sanctuary under surveillance since the day it opened, they consider it to be responsible for much of the drug culture in the MK/Aylesbury areas.! In the mid-90s people who went these used to laugh at the “undercover” cops there in their black polo neck jumpers..
There is also a purge on squats in the area in general, as they consider them to be places where criminals hang out.
I would expect cops suspected someone would try squatting it anyway; and told CCTV ops to check if loads of vehicles descended on Milton keynes the sanctuary building; then went in. There is also the chance that rentaguards from other units saw the crews going in and grassed them up. (This has happened a few times in Reading, which has similar industrial estates)
IMO far more likely outside influences fucked this up rather than any ravers; its such an obvious venue….
Most of the people who were relatively local went to PMT, who had relocated to the Ridgeway, which was a good if slightly smaller party…
They got left alone as well – apart from two cops who said if the rigs were off by 18:00 Sunday (which AFAIK they were) there would be no further action taken! Even after the cops shut down the sanctuary I think they had to concede there would be a party in the area somewhere 😀
