‘Don’t let taxpayers foot bill’ call over Bradford EDL demo

West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson is calling for a change in the law to allow such protests to be prevented. At present, static protests cannot be banned.

In a letter to Home Secretary Theresa May, he said: “The community impact of such a damaging and disruptive demonstration and the costs incurred to our communities at a time of severe cuts to public services makes the current legislative arrangements in my view hugely questionable.

“It is wholly wrong that the people of Bradford and taxpayers across West Yorkshire should carry the burden of the impact and costs for such events which are imposed upon them, and are designed to bring division and fear to our communities as well as attract groups with opposing views that only adds to community tensions.”

The former Labour councillor made the case for greater local powers following a protest by an estimated 700 English Defence League supporters in Bradford on Saturday which cost around £1m to police and involved more than 1,000 officers from several forces.

Mr Burns-Williamson is urging the Government to give West Yorkshire Police a special grant to cover the huge bill.

Bradford Council leader David Green is calling for a debate about whether such protests should be allowed in city centres because of the cost and the disruption to businesses.

He suggested such protests might be better taking place away from busy shopping areas. The bill for the local authority could be as high as £200,000.

Following Saturday’s protest, in which 11 people were arrested, Bradford West MP George Galloway called for the EDL to be placed on a list of banned organisations.

Organisations which have been proscribed – and which it is an offence to belong to – include the IRA and al-Qaida.

Mr Galloway said: “It appears that police and local authorities cannot ban static protests – even if they are likely to cause strife and civil commotion as this one was aimed at doing, or at least that’s the legal advice they have been getting.

“It seems that only by the Home Secretary proscribing the EDL can we stop them assembling at vast public cost to try to fracture community cohesion. Well, with its leader Tommy Robinson now having bailed out claiming the EDL has been taken over by far-right thugs, it’s time for Theresa May to ban this noxious, pernicious collection of ne’er-do-wells and neo-Nazis.”

He claimed that the EDL numbered only 200 on Saturday but their protest had cost local businesses tens of thousands of pounds in lost trade.

“I had several shop owners come up to me to say that they had been forced to shut down, the manager of the Midland Hotel told me that he had lost one booking alone at a cost of £6,000, so how much did it cost local business?

“Clearly tens of thousands of pounds. And all so that this bunch of far-right extremists could chant their racial hatred behind lines of police officers.

“I will be writing to Theresa May urging her to put an end to this madness by proscribing the EDL.”

The Respect MP said there was already a limit to freedom of speech. “No one can go into a cinema and shout ‘fire’ without severe legal sanctions. I just don’t accept that a group whose sole purpose is to set people against each other cannot be stopped from doing it on the public highway. I want answers and solutions.”

He urged businesses who had suffered to send their bills to Theresa May.

After the demo, Chief Superintendent Simon Atkin said: “Yet again, Bradfordians have shown the level of community spirit which exists in our city and have not reacted to provocation.”