£200,000 - cost of policing EDL demo

Police warning an EDL member

The policing cost of the English Defence League and United Against Fascism demonstrations in Rochdale town centre on Saturday (5 March 2011) cost in the region of £200,000 – at a time when both Greater Manchester Police and Rochdale Borough Council are facing huge cuts backs.

Rochdale Council has recently sliced its budget by £64m and it is thought another £80m savings will have to be made over the next couple of years.

Greater Manchester Police is also trying to make more than £49m savings which have been identified in response to the announcement of reductions in Government funding.

Hundreds of police officers were involved in the operation, including the tactical aid unit, police dog handlers and police horses. The police helicopter was also present.

Over 500 protestors from the English Defence League descended on Rochdale Town Centre and at least 150 counter demonstrators from Unite against Fascism also attended.

31 arrests were made, the majority of which were for public disorder.

The final cost is yet to be confirmed but both the police and the council say the cost would have been higher if a police operation hadn’t been in place.

Chief Superintendent John O'Hare said: "This was a partnership operation between police and Rochdale Council and the costs will be borne jointly.

“The final cost of the operation is not yet known, but it is important to stress that the cost of getting this right would be dwarfed by the cost to the community of us getting it wrong."

The Leader of Rochdale Borough Council, Councillor Colin Lambert, said: “At a time of all the cut backs we could have done without this happening in the town.”

The Cabinet member for Finance, Councillor Farooq Ahmed said: “There will be questions over the cost of this. People will want to know why we had to fork out when there is no money and people are losing their jobs but there was no alternative.

“The police did their upmost to prevent them coming to town and in the end they had to allow them.

“If the day hadn’t been organised like it was it would have cost the council and the police a lot more. If there had been trouble or serious incidents they would have cost money.

“It might have cost a lot – but it could have cost a lot more if there had been serious incidents.

“We had to take that measure, we had no choice. By minimising the trouble we saved a lot more than if we hadn’t.”