Former Labour councillor John Howarth has warned of another Hillsborough unless immediate action is taken by the council against organisers of the Reading Festival. Mr. Howarth, who is well versed in disasters after plotting the One-Way IDR and Labour's loss of control of the council, told readers in his fortnightly Evening Post column that unless the festival was taken into RBC control a major catastrophe was unavoidable. He warned of body bags and hundreds of deaths if the festival continued to play 'loud rock music', raging out of control fires if the price of a sausage in a bagette wasn't reduced to less than £6 as people resorted to guerilla barbeques and famine if a future festival was to run out of wholegrain pitta and falafels.

Mr. Howarth defended his column from accusations that he was making sick comparisons to gain attention, but admitted that since he lost access to a free ticket that he hasn't attended the event and was just making it all up. "However, I stand by my words. It's quite clear that Festival Republic are inexperienced at running such events. As far as I'm aware, they only run Reading, Leeds, Latitude, Glastonbury, Summerfest and Rise Festivals and are in desperate need of being guided through the corridors of putting on such high profile events by an expert such as myself. In fact it's about time that more of the organising was placed in the hands of Reading Borough Council. Failing that the only alternative I can see that would work would be for the council to run another festival so that assorted hangers on can get more freebies."