TWO of Loughton's three British National Party district councillors were among 150 members of the far-right party who turned out for a rally at Redbridge Station.

The contingent, from across London and the south east, were met by large numbers of police and protesters when they arrived around noon on Saturday. They were kept to one side of the station by police while they were told details of their final destination.

Terry Farr, who was at the rally with party colleague Pat Richardson, said Redbridge had been picked as a "meeting point". He refused to say where members had moved on to but said: "We have particular places we go to, and we never go to the same one each time. We don't know where we're going until the last minute."

Before the day hundreds of local organisations and councillors from across the political spectrum signed an open letter objecting to the rally and calling on residents to voice their opposition.

Redbridge deputy Labour leader Bob Littlewood said: "They've succeeded in drawing some support in Ilford from time to time. I think it's immensely provocative to come to Redbridge just two days after Holocaust Memorial Day and we have to demonstrate that we don't want them here."

Roding Liberal Democrat councillor Anthony Boyland added: "We've just got to show solidarity and show that the residents of Redbridge really don't want this sort of thing here."

Mr Farr said the meeting was "not a big rally" but to discuss membership enquiries across Essex.

He said: "We've had a lot of enquiries from people and we thought it would be good if the branches could get together to discuss ways to expand our support.

"I'm not knocking the demonstration, that's their democratic right, it's just a shame that they were protesting about free speech to British people."

He added he found it "extremely offensive" to suggest the meeting had been arranged deliberately near Auschwitz memorial day and "resented the fact that it was suggested we were holding this to coincide with that".

Police took hundreds of photographs of both BNP members and protestors.

Over the course of an hour BNP members left in groups of five to travel by car to their final destination.