Scotland Yard backs down after telling campaigners to 'pay to protest'

 
Yard backs down: A peace protest in London FILE IMAGE

Scotland Yard has backed down over a refusal to organise road closures and policing for two major protests in London after criticism from Boris Johnson and campaign groups.

The Met had told protest groups that in future they needed to hire private companies to carry out road closure schemes at a cost of thousands of pounds.

The force was also demanding that protest groups fund their own stewarding for marches above a certain size.

In a statement the Met said following a meeting with campaign groups it had agreed to help with road closures for the Campaign Against Climate Change and the Million Women Rise protests in March.

However, the force said the U-turn did not represent a change in policy and future marches would have to negotiate with police to secure their services.

The Met’s policy has prompted accusations that it could be breaching the convention on human rights and led to questions over whether Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe was trying to stifle peaceful protest.

More than 60,000 people signed an online campaign calling on the Met to reverse its position and 12 campaign groups told the Yard they would refuse to pay private firms to manage their protests.

Lindsay Alderton, a CACC organiser, told the Guardian : “The privatisation of protest would have veered dangerously towards a situation where only those with money would be able to pay for the privilege.”

Earlier this week Boris Johnson said he did not agree with the Met’s stance saying he believed the Met did a “fantastic job” policing the 5,000 protests every year and “I think it’s important that they continue to do so.”

Green Party London Assembly member Jenny Jones said: “The Met Police have got themselves into a mess on this. It’s obvious they didn’t discuss the decision with the Mayor, who clearly disagrees with them, and they certainly didn’t think through the impact on the part of their job that means they must facilitate the democratic process. It’s a cost-cutting move that has backfired.

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