Cost of policing Brighton on Jubilee weekend reached £750,000

The bill for policing Brighton and Hove over the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend was between £750,000 and £800,000, Sussex Police have confirmed.

The police have been criticised for spending so much public money at a time when money is tight.

The police had a particularly busy weekend with around 400 local street party and Jubilee events taking place in the city.

Additionally, extra policing was required to cover the two Fatboy Slim gigs at the Amex. The cost of this was £40,000 but the bill has been picked up by the event organisers.

Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk

myprint-247

View details

Print voucher

Our heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.

Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk

Contact: 01858 468192

Valid until: Sunday, May 26 2013

However, the controversial part of the costs has been down to the large police presence to cover a supposed march by right wing demonstrators, supposedly attached to the English Defence League and a counter demo by anti-fascists.

There was also an anti-jubilee street party in Churchill Square organised by Brighton Uncut involving an estimated 100 people.

All of the costs over the weekend were at overtime rates, again, inflating the cost.

About 400 police officers were called onto the streets and hundreds more were held back in case they were needed. In the event, the demonstrations were fairly minor and involved scores of people rather than the hundreds on each side that had been planned for. The police estimate that the bill totalled £2,000 per demonstrator.

In total Saturday's operational costs are expected to reach £340,000. There were 18 arrests in total.

Additionally, there was an anti-arms demonstration and on the Monday a further demonstration by people against EDO. No arrests were made but again hundreds of officers were used. This part of the weekend's operation is estimated to have cost £280,000.

Chief Superintendent Paul Morrison, Head of Sussex Police's Operations Department, who oversaw planning for the weekend, said: "Weekends like this highlight the challenge of policing uncertainty.

"Throughout planning and on the day, the cost of operations is a constant consideration, alongside an over-riding duty to be sufficiently resourced to keep people safe in any likely scenario. We must base this on expectations and experience of previous events, without certainty about what the day will bring.

"Over this weekend all of these factors - uncertainty about the intentions of some groups, high predicted numbers of attendees, possible conflict between groups on Saturday and significant disorder seen at previous events held by some of the groups - contributed to an assessment that we would require a high level of resourcing."