[g8-sheffield] Cost of policing Sheffield G8

[atw]

Police force set to pick up bill
Paul Whitehouse

A police force looks set to have to dip into its emergency reserves to
help pay the bill for policing the international G8 summit hosted in
Sheffield earlier this year.

The meeting, which involved representatives of the world's most
powerful nations, took place in June and Sheffield was selected as a
venue while the city's Brightside MP, David Blunkett, was Home
Secretary.

The question of whether the Government would meet the cost of the
operation was never answered, although the force had to mount a
stringent security operation to safeguard visitors from a possible
terrorist threat and from anti-poverty and anti-war protesters who
caused chaos at previous G8 meetings

About 450 officers from South Yorkshire Police were involved in the
operation and the force called in colleagues from other forces. Those
forces have now sent bills to South Yorkshire Police (SYP) totalling
£373,000, though that total is expected to grow to £400,000 with the
final sums. Final costs for the operation have yet to be worked out
but at present the bill is close to £1.6m. The Home Office has a
Special Grants budget which has cash to meet the cost of such one-off
events, but South Yorkshire Police Authority has been warned the
budget is under pressure this year.

That means the force may be asked to pay part of the bill from its own
reserves, the money kept aside from day-to-day spending to meet
emergency expenditure.

The Home Office want to see full details of the claim from South
Yorkshire Police Authority before making a statement on how much it
intends to contribute, but an authority report says: "The Home Office
expect to ask SYP to meet some element of the additional costs.

"The Home Office cannot expand on this any further until they are in
receipt of the claim."

The G8 operation in South Yorkshire was controversial, with some
observers believing the police presence was unnecessarily large for
the event.

During the visit protesters were kept at some distance from the
official entourage and ten people were arrested in this area for
public order offences.

Sheffield Attercliffe's Labour MP Clive Betts says the Government
should meet the full cost of policing what was a national event.

01 December 2005




Independent grassroots news: www.sheffield.indymedia.org.uk



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