Club battles police in court over £1m bill for match-day security

A DISPUTE over who should pay for policing of matches at Leeds United has reached the High Court in a case which could have repercussions for the rest of football.

The Championship side club has claimed it has been wrongly charged by West Yorkshire Police for policing public highways and car parks around its Elland Road stadium.

It wants a decision on which of the services deployed by the force for the last three seasons were special police services and whether it was entitled to be repaid for services it says were wrongly categorised.

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The litigation involves policing in the “extended footprint” of land around the stadium that is not owned or leased by the club.

Michael Beloff QC told Mr Justice Eady in London that the action was a test case.

He said it was the hope of the footballing and policing worlds that the court’s ruling would provide “powerful guidance” on the issue.

He told the court the functions of a police constable are “deep-rooted” in common law, and that the police have no right to charge for a constable’s primary function which remains, as in the 17th century, the preservation of the Queen’s peace.

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From that function stems the duties to prevent the commission of a crime, to protect life and property, and to control traffic on the roads. The promotion of law and order is the cardinal obligation owed by a state to its citizens and among the benefits for which they pay taxes.

But, the provision of special police services is an exception to the general rule, Mr Beloff said.

“Where they are provided, they are provided more for private than public benefit and so the police are entitled to charge the main beneficiaries of that service.”

The club is content to pay for services within the stadium or on land privately owned, leased or controlled by it, but it claims that policing on the public highway, on land not owned or controlled by it, for the purposes of maintaining public order or the prevention of obstruction, does not constitute special police services.

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“Rather this constitutes normal policing duties within the scope of a constable’s normal common law obligations.

“As such, West Yorkshire Police’s insistence on charging Leeds United Football Club for such policing is illegal, as it is an attempt to charge a private citizen for the normal costs of policing when such a citizen is entitled to expect such services to be provided by the police pursuant to their duties to the public.”

Mr Beloff also claimed the prices levied by the force are also “unreasonable” since they are much higher than the overtime rates paid to officers.

He said the club’s policing bill had soared from about £250,000 in the 2007-8 season to more than £1m in 2011-12.

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John Beggs QC, for West Yorkshire Police, told the court the footprint around the stadium was designed to include those areas in the immediate vicinity where members of the public are present exclusively for the purpose of attending matches and where police resources have most commonly needed to be deployed to protect those individuals by preventing violence and disorder – Leeds United’s home matches having one of the worst records for football-related violence in the UK.

Mr Beggs said it is clear the police could charge for policing on public land as long as it was deployed for the protection of those attending the match or for the benefit of the club rather than for the safety of the public at large.

“Vanishingly few members of the public who are not attending the match enter the extended footprint on match days,” he said.

“On non-match days the extended footprint is virtually deserted and it is policed by one police community support officer as part of his wider beat.”

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The claim that policing to prevent breaches of the peace and to ensure public order could not be special police services because it represents the discharge of a constable’s duty at common law is “equally unmeritorious”, he added.

The hearing, which is expected to last five days, continues today.