The council are also unhappy with the Met Police amid rumours they escorted the travellers from Dagenham to the Thurrock border.
Yup, it seems it’s
this merry band.
Councillor Jane Pothecary, in charge of public protection, said she’ll be writing to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, and Essex Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh asking for assurances that their two forces communicated and co-operated during Friday’s operation to remove travellers from Dagenham.
She said: “I cannot believe the rumours that the Met simply escorted the travellers to the London-Thurrock border and let them go are true.”
Really, love? No-one else will have any trouble.
A statement from Essex Police said: “Police were alerted on Friday afternoon that Travellers had set up an unauthorised encampment on the football pitch at Lakeside Sports Ground. Officers went to the site and served the Travellers with a section 61 notice informing them they had to leave, which they did.
“On Friday evening officers went to Belhus Park at Aveley following reports that Travellers had gained access to a field there and were setting up an unauthorised encampment.
“On arrival officers found vehicles and caravans on the land already, with others continuing to arrive. Having assessed the number of officers immediately available to assist given other emergency incidents, the poor weather conditions, the continued movement of a large number of vehicles and the presence of children, it was decided that trying to prevent vehicles from accessing the site would have created a significant risk to the safety of everyone.”
Which – translating as I can from PlodSpeak – means ‘Awwww, it was cold and raining and it looked like they might get a bit handy if we did anything and we couldn’t really be arsed to upset the Diversity Officer…’.
Essex police can't get enough, Julia. You can always count on them going the extra mile for a full measure of ridicule.
ReplyDeleteWasn't this the force which mounted a vital operation to try to catch people smoking in company cars?
ReplyDeleteAnd they would, no doubt, bleat at the drop of a helmet about how stretched they are.
Wasn't this the plod 'service' involved in the scandal of child abuse victims with cases going back to the 60s? Independent investigations recently revealed cover-ups, made-up reports and fraudulent statements, together with various allegations of involvement by pervert police working in the force’s child abuse units.
ReplyDeleteIf rumours are true that travellers were also involved in protected status for paedophiles, it may be that Essex police were not so much lazy but fearful of upsetting this group.
"Wasn't this the force which mounted a vital operation to try to catch people smoking in company cars?"
ReplyDeleteIndeed so.
"Wasn't this the plod 'service' involved in the scandal of child abuse victims with cases going back to the 60s? "
Also true. Gosh, a pattern is emerging..