Moral panic, censorship and popular music go a long way back. From the spectre of Teddy Boys rampaging through British cinemas to the strains of Bill Haley and Blackboard Jungle, Elvis being filmed from "the waist up" on the Ed Sullivan Show and the Stones singing Let's Spend Some Time Together, through to the "filth and the fury" of the Pistols' Bill Grundy encounter, the Beastie Boys, Acid House, So Solid Crew, Amy Winehouse and on and on and on.

To that list, we must now – apparently - add the name of Pete Doherty. Today it was announced that the Babyshambles frontman has been banned by Wiltshire Police from headlining the Moonfest festival in Westbury.

The reason? Preventing crime and disorder.

According to police superintendent Paul Williams, Doherty has the ability to "gee up" his audience to a dangerous frenzy; creating a "whirlpool effect" through sheer power of musicianship and capable of sparking serious public disorder among his followers.

Slipping into Mary Whitehouse mode, he adds: "Experts are telling us that the profile of fans that follow Pete Doherty and Babyshambles is volatile and they can easily be whipped up into a frenzy, whereas the profile of someone that would follow around Cliff Richard or Bucks Fizz, for example, is completely different."

Doherty's unwholesome powers can be judged in all their glory here. Admittedly, this is boisterous behaviour for a such a prestigious venue as the Albert Hall; although, possibly, not as quite as frenzied as this, and certainly a long way short of this.

However, whatever your views on Doherty, there are serious implications here for the wider music community. Not least as to how the Wiltshire constabulary, utilising section 160 of the 2003 Licensing Act, can wield such unreasonable and disproportionate powers in deciding what kind of musicians can and can not play live in their immediate vicinity.

Certainly, the limits of section 160, which allows premises to be closed down if there is nothing more than a perceived risk of "disorder or expected disorder", arose on a number of occasions in my previous capacity as chairman of the Live Music Forum. Under terms of the Act, a local authority and constabulary has 28 days in which to undertake all checks. Only after these are agreed is a performance licence granted – although this is the first time that it has been used to actually censor an artist.

According to the Moonfest organisers, Wiltshire police, having attended every public licensing meeting over the last six months, were fully aware that Babyshambles would be appearing, and actively supported the event when a licence was granted without objection on July 24.

This is all verified on the district council's website. Clearly, in the interim period, Wiltshire police had a sudden change of mind, deciding that Babyshambles fans were, in fact, a risk to public order.

I am now in the process of writing to culture secretary Andy Burnham and look forward to hearing back as to what these extraordinary circumstances were. No doubt UK musicians would also appreciate clarification as to where the line of censorship is drawn.

As someone who oversaw the implementation of the Act, I can confirm that it was actually designed to modernise an archaic system of licensing, not to enable faceless bureaucrats ride roughshod over culture and creativity and have undue influence over an artist's ability to forge a career - regardless of their whirlpool inciting powers or not.