ANTI-NAZI League demonstrators were today banned from protesting at a British National Party carnival over the coming weekend.

Members of the anti-racist party had intended trying to prevent the BNP's two-day carnival in the Sawley area of the Ribble Valley, in Lancashire, from going ahead on Saturday and Sunday.

However, the Chief Constable of Lancashire, Paul Stephenson, decided to impose conditions to stop people from the Anti-Nazi League demonstrating in the Sawley area.

He has said they may carry out their protest in other parts of the area.

Today the ANL said they planned to make an 11th-hour bid to the Home Secretary to get the police exclusion order overturned.

Police fear that owing to the position of the BNP carnival site next to a busy main road friction between the two rival groups might lead to people being injured on the A59 road.

A Lancashire Police spokesman said: "It's a busy road and there is another big steam festival at the same time so there will be a lot of people trying to get to both those main events and to have people running in and out of the main road was foreseen as a problem."

The force decided to serve an order under Section 14 of the Public Order Act on the ANL to exclude them from within five kilometres of the BNP event, after holding talks with organisers from the ANL, BNP and Ribble Valley Borough Council.

Divisional Commander Chief Superintendent John Thompson said the BNP meeting was being held on private premises so they could not prevent it from happening altogether.

"We are aware of calls for the event to be banned, but we have no powers to do so because the organisers are doing nothing illegal.

"We hope everybody attending both events will behave reasonably and not break the law. We will have a high-profile policing presence during the course of the weekend to offer support and reassurance to the community in and around Sawley."

He added that the ANL were still allowed to protest against the carnival but must stay away from the Sawley area and both police and Ribble Valley Council would support an alternative venue for this.

"The conditions were granted by the Chief Constable in order to safeguard public safety and the safety of the demonstrators themselves, particularly in view of the proximity of the busy A59 road. The Constabulary believes the conditions are a proportionate' response to the potential for disorder and injury.

"Our policing will be appropriate to ensure those who wish to participate are able to do so and those who wish to demonstrate do so in a reasonable and lawful manner."

ANL members Shahid Maliq of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee, Labour councillor Paul Moor, of Burnley, and Julie Waterson who is national organiser of the ANL, plan to gather in Sawley tomorrow to issue an appeal to David Blunkett.

An ANL spokesman said: "The ANL will be holding a conference on Friday to make an 11th-hour appeal for the Home Secretary, the police and Ribble Valley Council to prevent the Nazi rally happening in the village this weekend.

"We will also be urging the police to withdraw their ban on the protesting planned by ANL against the BNP's event."