A FARNHAM busker has this week started a campaign to reinstate live music in the Lion and Lamb Yard after the current owner booted him out following a 15-year stint of playing to the public. Nick Garner, aka Star, can often be seen in his bright clothes with his hand-painted guitar, serenading the shoppers near the entrance to Waitrose. However, all that changed recently when he was approached and told to get out of the yard. Anti- busking signs went up, the musicians left and the yard has remained silent since. Now Star spends his time gathering an ever- growing number of signatures on a petition against the ban and other rules laid down by the yard owner. "I find it very sad that these people who don't even live here find the need to come down from London to our town, dictate what they want without any regard to what the people of this town want, and then leave," he said. "This isn't really about me, I feel as though I owe it to the people of Farnham to champion this cause. When I'm gone there will be other people who will come along and won't have this incredible place in which to learn the ropes so I'm doing this as a selfless act on behalf of everybody. "I could easily just walk away and find somewhere else to busk, I've got nothing to lose really, but this is just the beginning. If you lose the live street entertainment then you will lose a very large part of our culture that we are all so proud of here in Farnham." Alongside his belief in the right of buskers to play where they like lies the right of shop keepers to display their wares and put signs up outside their shops - also banned under the current management. "Shops displaying their goods and putting up signs is a part of street culture and has been for thousands of years. What the new management doesn't realise is that people like me bring business into their yard. The people outside Starbucks and the cafés at the bottom enjoy the atmosphere you get from eating and drinking al-fresco with live music. "Now they have security guards going around enforcing these ridiculous rules and there's only one way to get rid of a bully and that's to bully him back. You can't hide the truth when it's bigger than the lie." Many of those who regularly sit and enjoy a drink in the yard have called for a reversal of the ban and said they would happily sign the petition. Alice Burtwell, a Farnham resident who visits Starbucks and enjoys listening to Star and other buskers, said it was "a real shame" that buskers have been asked to move on. "The live music adds a little bit of extra life to the street scene and people seem to enjoy it and enjoy getting to know the usual faces that play here," she said. "I don't sit outside Starbucks all that often but when I do I like to listen to the buskers. The guy with the accordion who plays at the other end of the yard is great and it's such a pity to deprive people of a bit of live music." Val Lee, an Alresford resident who often visits Farnham to enjoy a drink outside Cromwell's Chocolatiers, was shocked to hear of the ban. "I think it's terrible that the owner of the yard has such a draconian attitude that he has seen fit to ban all buskers. It's atmospheric and leads to the general pleasure you get from sitting here and shopping here. As long as there are not too many of them all playing at once then it's very relaxing while you are enjoying your coffee to have live music in the background." Emily Cullen, a Farnham resident who regularly enjoys sitting outside the cafés in the yard, told The Herald that it was an "outrage" that buskers have been removed. "I really enjoy taking in the general atmosphere of the yard and I have to say that I think it's appalling that the manager has decided to get rid of them. Has he ever sat and enjoyed the general ambience here? I bet he isn't a Farnham resident, if he was he would never have done this." Gerald Davidson, who took ownership of the yard last August, explained his reason for banning the buskers as carrying out the wishes of his tenants. "I've received correspondences from several of my tenants asking me to remove the buskers," he explained. "I wouldn't have done it otherwise as I didn't even know they were there. I went down there on a Saturday morning a few weeks back and there was a guy busking at the entrance to the yard who was absolutely blind drunk with beer cans and fag packets around his feet. He was staggering and swaying and was generally unpleasant to look at - he was even smoking a joint." Mr Davidson said that following the encounter with the drunken busker and following requests from shopkeepers, he decided to place a ban on busking in the yard. "I'm not in a position to allow them as I can't check on who they are and I won't go around giving individual licenses to people. I'm doing my best to try and change the yard for the better for Farnham." • Copies of Star's petition against the ban on busking can be found in various pubs around the town, including The Hop Blossom in Long Garden Walk.