Concerns raised over cost of policing asylum protests in Flintshire and Wrexham
Wrexham and Flintshire councillors have raised concerns over whether North Wales Police can afford to police protests over housing for migrants awaiting asylum decisions.
They also questioned whether the Home Office would be funding the policing of these protests – which are connected to a change in Home Office policy regarding asylum claims – or whether the burden would fall on North Wales taxpayers.
At the latest meeting of the North Wales Police and Crime Panel, Wrexham Councillor Nigel Williams said he was worried about the costs associated with increasing numbers of protests as a joint financial plan from the Chief Constable of North Wales Police and the Police and Crime Commissioner sought to reduce North Wales Police’s financial reserves.
“There is a planned reduction of reserves from £56m to £27m between March 25 and end of March 2032,” he said. “I do have some concerns looking at future demands. The national picture across England and Wales is changing.
“It’s been very well publicised over the last few weeks that Wrexham, Newport, Swansea and Cardiff have been highlighted as particular areas for re-homing asylum seekers. Over the last few weeks two places have been identified in Wrexham – Plas yn Rhos and Oak Alyn Hall.
“There was a public meeting two weeks ago in Rhos where an estimated 7-800 people turned up. I’ve been notified that there were four vans of officers around the corner in case they were required. Obviously that requires a cost to police it.
“We have now heard that the Plas yn Rhos plan is not going to go ahead but there is still one at Oak Alyn Hall. Because there are allocated numbers of people for each area the rejection of Plas yn Rhos means the process just starts again as the Home Office continues to look for other properties.
“Wrexham is proud to have helped refugees in the past, we’ve helped those from Syria and Ukraine. This feels different because this is being imposed on us by UK Government and there’s a lot of civil unrest.
“We all see the news every evening about asylum protests in England and the huge amount of policing required for that.
“Will the Home Office intervene and give us extra money if it’s all to do with asylum seeking accommodation – as it is the Home Office that has imposed this on local councils? Will it be purely down to North Wales Police to police it?
“If there’s so many people turning up to a public meeting, when individuals do get housed in these properties my fear is it is going to get worse again.”
Cllr Williams suggested postponing the use of reserves – earmarked to fund North Wales Police’s capital programme to maintain or replace police buildings – for 12 months while the impact of protests could be measured.
Chief Constable of North Wales Police Amanda Blakeman admitted it was difficult for the force to factor in protests into it’s budgeting.
“The world is changing,” she said. “We’re seeing a lot more public protest, very often at very late notice. We respect the absolute right to protest and make sure that we do all of the necessary information gathering so that we out the right resource into that level of protest.
“Nonetheless it does cost, it is an expense. It is something that is difficult to plan for. There is an opportunity to draw down some funding from the Home Office but it doesn’t cover the total cost and there are certain conditions attached to that.
“We’ve got two operations that have been ongoing, one that is sort of a mainstay operation that allows us to understand what’s going on in our communities and respond to it and one for any specific protest activity.”
Seb Phillips, director of finance for North Wales Police added: “Public protests associated with asylum seeking would be captured through our Force Management Statement which looks broadly at the demand pressures we are facing.
“Where there is a planned protest we can capture the costs accordingly. The partial-year figures for planned protest costs are around £100,000 so far. Some of that is recoverable.”
But Cllr Williams warned the protests that have sprung up since September, when the UK Government announced it would end the use of hotels for those awaiting decisions on asylum claims, were only likely to get worse and more costly.
“My concern is that this is a ticking timebomb,” he said. “I know there was a couple of very small protests in the summer and they had dispersal orders in place.
“But this year I think we will see things ramp up. The amount is currently £100,00 and that’s before any properties are actually turned over to asylum seeker accommodation.
“It goes back to my concern over reducing the reserves. Will this impact on everyday policing?
“Until we actually know how much of an impact this is going to have we should not be reducing reserves.”
“There is civil unrest when nobody has even come here yet on the asylum seeker scheme. I would urge you to reconsider reducing the reserves for next year until we know how much it will cost the force financially to police these protests when they happen.”
Flintshire County Councillor Chris Bithell, whose Mold ward was subjected to asylum protests last summer – agreed with his Wrexham counterpart.
“We’ve been confronted by this since September,” he said. “The average is one protest every three or four weeks now. There are counter-protests as well and there is a police presence keeping both sides apart.
“This is a matter of concern. These confrontations are going to increase. Wrexham’s involved now there are going to be other areas as well in due course because it is the Home Office’s policy to close down the hotels.
“In doing so they mean to disperse the asylum seekers in towns and villages across the country which is going to pose even more problems for us.
“We need to look at the cost of this because it is the taxpayer who will be paying for this in due course.”
Kate Jackson, Chief Finance Officer for the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner, said that postponing planned capital spending would only cause financial difficulties down the line.
“We still need police stations,” she said. “For example our plans to replace Mold and Deeside Police Stations they will need to go ahead.
“North Wales Police Federation Headquarters needs work, whether it is to be retained or disposed of so to plan to not do it is somewhat irresponsible. We need to maintain our estate in a fit state to continue policing in North Wales with a capital programme that fits that.”
Despite councillors’ concerns, North Wales Police’s medium term financial plan was approved by the panel.
By Alec Doyle – Local Democracy Reporter
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