It was easy to create spectacular one-off displays and even regular matchday colour with the old head of security. Genuine understanding guy, who despite not being an OUFC fan, enjoyed football and loved seeing what what we came up with. We worked together to ensure it was all safe, he had common sense etc etc. We gave him a bit of a headache with the Swindon surfer and "Robins on the Run" but even the Police Commander for that day left it in his hands and he gave us the benefit of the doubt!
The one who followed took a different approach, and went well out of his way to make things as difficult as possible. Simple things we'd done for years were suddenly banned, 100x more red tape, we had forms to fill out, it really was not worth it at all. We reported this to the club but despite some false hope, at the time they sided with their employee (which we half expected, despite obvious disappointment). They made it clear we were the ones causing him and the club a problem in a couple of meetings, that killed it for me at the time, and I imagine that detered a young group from starting something new.
However it's a new board, new staff and new head of security. Hopefully any new group would receive a more helpful approach this time around.