Torch security 'cost almost £750,000'

[enaid]

Security for the Olympic torch relay through London cost almost £750,000, the Metropolitan Police have said.
The participation of the Chinese flame security team was agreed in advance but they had no executive powers, according to a Met briefing paper on the event.
Chaotic scenes were beamed around the world as the torch made its way through the capital, with some human rights protesters trying to extinguish the flame.
The Met said its officers took "appropriate and proportionate action" when "on occasions people attempted to breach the safety, security and safe passage of the torchbearer and convoy".
Television footage showed officers barging some protesters out of the path of the torch, while other demonstrators who tried to rush towards it were bundled over and pinned to the ground.
The briefing paper said the Chinese flame security team, which surrounded the torch in blue tracksuits, were part of the legal agreement between the Greater London Authority (GLA) and the Beijing Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG) drawn up in 2007.
The chairman of the London Olympic Committee, Lord Coe, and London Mayor Ken Livingstone were among those who criticised the escorts, branding them as "thugs".
But Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate Brian Paddick said the report, distributed to members of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), made it clear that Mr Livingstone knew about the guards before the event.

Now how shall we recoup this cost oh yes easy peasy..................



Council defends over-full wheelie bin prosecution.

A Cumbria borough council has defended its decision to prosecute a man who overfilled his wheelie bin by four inches.
Gareth Corkhill, 26, of Whitehaven, was stunned to receive a fixed penalty notice from Copeland Borough Council.
He was charged with overfilling his bin, which had its lid raised.
Mr Corkhill did not pay the fine of £110 and was taken to court, where he was ordered to pay an extra £100 in prosecution costs and a £15 court surcharge.
He told the Whitehaven News: "My bin lid was only open four inches. I was in shock when I found about the fine. I couldn't believe they would do that.
"I have my rubbish collected every fortnight. There are five people in my family, three children, me and my wife. Plus I have my daughter over the weekends.
"We recycle everything we can, including plastics, cardboard, tins, glass and paper. We have got a black box that is always full.
"It's only an £80 fine for fly-tipping. I would have been better off doing that."
In a statement, the council said: "Copeland Borough Council will continue to crack down on the problem of overflowing bins, which cause problems for local residents and in the battle to reduce waste. It is important that we all reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill.
"We can do this by recycling more of what is in our bins, and we would advise anyone who has a problem with too much waste to look at what can be recycled."

From one load of crap to another IMHO.

[Celestine]

Re: Torch security 'cost almost £750,000'

On that basis, councils need to be fairer to high occupancy properties. We have five occupants at our home, which creates a lot of rubbish. Surely a sole occupier filling their bin is wasting more than a five person family?

If they want to make these rules, they need to be fairer....ie. specify a weight of waste permitted per person, everything else has to be recycled type of policy. As it stands at the moment, it is becomingly scarily easy to break the law.

[LuggerBugs]

Re: Torch security 'cost almost £750,000'

OK, if the Chinese security team had no executive powers, why were they not arrested for assault for manhandling the protesters that managed to get close to the flame? If Joe Public had stepped in and tried to push someone back, you can just bet they'd have been in the back of a police van faster than you could blink.

I'm having an angry day. Soz.