Extremist rallies run up £1m police bill

TAXPAYERS in Yorkshire have been landed with a policing bill of almost £1m after trouble flared at two demonstrations involving the English Defence League (EDL).

Keeping the peace in Bradford city centre during a protest by the far-Right EDL and a counter-demonstration by anti-fascist campaigners cost an estimated 633,495, West Yorkshire Police has revealed.

The August Bank Holiday operation involved more than 1,600 officers and was almost twice as expensive as a similar exercise in Leeds last year, when protests by the rival groups cost 345,000 to police.

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The huge bill, which must be absorbed in existing police budgets, presents an extra headache for West Yorkshire chief officers coming to terms with savage funding cuts over the next four years.

They expect to find the money through savings from a county-wide recruitment freeze. No staff have joined since June and the force has no plans to recruit officers in the current financial year.

In the past, money for "one-off" major police operations would be found from contingency funds, but these reserves have dried up.

The policing costs come on top of the 100,000 spent by Bradford Council reinforcing fencing around the city's "Urban Garden", where the EDL members were penned in.

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About 700 EDL supporters, including women and children, took part in the protest and, a short walk away, almost 300 people were gathered behind a steel fence for a counter-demonstration organised by the groups Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and We Are Bradford.

Campaigners were restricted to "static" demonstrations after West Yorkshire Chief Constable Sir Norman Bettison secured an order banning them from marching through the city, but there were still violent scenes as protesters hurled missiles including stones, bottles, cans, cigarette lighters and smoke bombs.

Fourteen people were arrested for offences including violent disorder, criminal damage and possessing an offensive weapon.

The police investigation is continuing, with detectives trawling through hours of CCTV footage to identify troublemakers.

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Home Secretary Theresa May has backed the operation in the House of Commons and praised Bradford residents who behaved peacefully.

The cost estimate is included in the minutes, to be agreed later this week, of a meeting of West Yorkshire Police Authority's resources committee.

"The force anticipated that with the recent EDL demonstration... costs would be offset by the savings from reduced recruitment," the minutes state.

"Members questioned the use of contingency funds for one-off operations and were informed that due to budget restraints, contingency funds were no longer set up within the force."

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Keeping order when the EDL and UAF demonstrated in Leeds city centre in October last year cost West Yorkshire Police 235,000, including 21,000 in overtime.

Other forces which provided officers reported costs totalling an estimated 110,000, including 23,800 incurred by British Transport Police and 13,600 by South Yorkshire Police.

Officers from North Yorkshire, Humberside, Northumbria, Cleveland and Durham were also drafted in to help the operation.