Championship football team Leeds United, one
of England’s biggest clubs, but with a history of fierce rivalry with other teams
such as Cardiff City, Arsenal and Milwall, are
challenging the spiralling cost of policing at the club’s Elland Road ground in
the High Court. United were charged
about £250,000 for policing during the 2007-2008 season, but by the 2011-2012
season this had risen to more than £1m, said club barrister Michael Beloff QC.
United claim they have been wrongly charged by
West Yorkshire Police for matchday work by the force on streets and car parks
around Elland Road. They argue that the
police should not bill them for maintaining order or preventing obstructions on
land which is neither club-owned nor controlled and Leeds are now seeking to
persuade top judge Mr Justice Eady to order a refund of the alleged
overpayments.
Mr Beloff told the High Court: “West Yorkshire Police’s insistence on
charging Leeds United 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.” He also said that the court action was “in the nature of a test case”. Mr Beloff said the footballing and policing worlds
both hoped a ruling would provide “powerful
guidance” on the issue.
And the WOMAD festival
organisers have told the BBC that they may use security companies to police the
event held at Charlton Park, near
Malmesbury, in Wiltshire if an agreement is not reached with the
the local Wiltshire Police who currently say they will not be attending. Now organisers have confirmed that this year's
event will still go ahead even if an agreement over policing is not reached
with WOMAD director Chris Smith telling the BBC the event are considering the
use private security. He is quoted as saying, "We don't want to go
ahead without the police, but where we are at the moment is the police have
said they are not coming, so we are now revising our plans to present to the
licensing authority to show that we can run the event without the police. It's
not where we want to be, but it's currently where we're heading."
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