Leeds United Football Club Ltd v The Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE EADY,Mr Justice Eady |
| Judgment Date | 24 July 2012 |
| Neutral Citation | [2012] EWHC 2113 (QB) |
| Docket Number | Case No: HQ11X01926 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
| Date | 24 July 2012 |
[2012] EWHC 2113 (QB)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
The Honourable Mr Justice Eady
Case No: HQ11X01926
Michael Beloff QC and Mark Gay (instructed by Burges Salmon) for the Claimant
John Beggs QC and James Berry (instructed by Office of the Force Solicitor) for the Defendant
Hearing dates: 10–12 July 2012
The problem of policing in and around Elland Road Stadium
The central issue now before the court is whether the West Yorkshire Police ("WYP") are able to recoup from Leeds United Football Club ("the Club") the very considerable costs of public order policing and crowd control around the immediate environs of the Club premises, before and after matches, or whether they are confined to recovering in respect of special police services ("SPS") on land which is owned, leased or directly controlled by the Club. I was told that the Club's home matches have one of the worst records for football-related violence in the country. This appears to be borne out by Home Office statistics which consistently show the Club's supporters either at or very near the top of the league when it comes to arrests and football banning orders. The costs of policing such events are, therefore, very considerable and rising. At the moment the Club is paying (partly, at least, on a without prejudice basis so far as this issue is concerned) SPS costs not far short of £1m per annum. There is no single drain on WYP's diminishing resources greater than that of policing the Club's matches. It is hardly surprising, in these circumstances, that they wish to recover as much as they reasonably can. The question is how far the law permits them to go.
I was shown extracts of recorded footage relating to crowd control at a selection of matches over the past year or so. Sometimes it has proved necessary to deploy dozens, even hundreds, of police officers to shepherd the fans of visiting teams and to keep them separate and apart from home supporters. It has emerged from the evidence that the officers who take part in such operations regard them as "holistic" and "seamless"; that is to say, they do not see it as realistic to draw a clear distinction between police activities inside the stadium and those outside. In particular, the calming effect of external crowd control prior to matches reduces the risk of violent outbreaks within.
Mr Peter Nicholson is currently a security consultant, but from 2005 was the superintendent in charge of operations in the division which included the Elland Road stadium. He told me:
"The policing of football matches at this stadium had a significant drain on policing resources not only within the Division, but also to the force as a whole. The policing of football matches at Elland Road could not be considered 'normal' policing activity.…The resources available to me were insufficient to meet the demands of the Division as well as policing the stadium. This had an effect on the service we were providing to the general public as officers were being taken from operational work within the Division to police LUFC home games.
There is generally an increase in crime recording associated with LUFC home games. Additional officers were routinely deployed to Bridewell Police Station in the City Centre to deal with those arrested at or near the stadium. We were also routinely required to request assistance from other Divisions to provide officers so that there were sufficient numbers to safely police the games. Clearly, this also had an impact on the resources available to other Divisions.
Because of the reputation of the club and many incidents of disorder associated with their football matches, a great deal of time and effort was put into ensuring the safety of the fans (both home and away) and the local community. A good example of the disorder experienced on a regular basis was the match between LUFC and Millwall in October 2007 when LUFC supporters smashed the windows of buses containing Millwall supporters on Elland Road outside the stadium as the buses were en route to the game. At the end of the game the LUFC supporters besieged car park A, which forced us to deploy mounted officers and police dog handlers as well as numerous other officers to ensure the safety of the travelling supporters."
As various officers explained, an attempt is made in advance of each home match to anticipate the degree of risk involved. The most common categorisations are A to C in ascending order of gravity. There is, however, an even higher rating than C for the worst cases. It is generally true that the risks are assessed as being higher in relation to visits from certain teams (which I need not name for present purposes). At all events, Mr Nicholson explained that in relation to the matches which were assessed as being of high risk the Club regularly dedicated a room within the stadium for police officers to store their riot gear, so as to afford immediate access when disorder broke out.
Another officer with years of direct experience of the problem is Inspector Neil Hemingway, who thought that in his 20 years service he had probably attended and assisted in the policing of no less than 150 matches at Elland Road. He told me:
"I have policed a large number of games over that period and have been involved on numerous occasions in restoring order between rival fans at the ground, in the different car parks around the periphery of the stadium and in the city centre. In my experience there are a significant minority of LUFC supporters who persistently and actively seek to get involved in disorder at football fixtures. I have faced high levels of violence from groups attending LUFC fixtures, from both home and away fans and have been deployed on a number of occasions within a unit carrying shields and/or batons to protect ourselves and restore order.…
Risk fans are a group of individuals who wish to engage in disorder with other like-minded groups of supporters from rival football clubs. The risk elements tend to maintain contact with each other to arrange disorder, contact is often made via social websites such as Facebook or on fan websites or via the telephone.…
The risk groups tend to be well organised and most have a hierarchy. Generally within this structure there will be those who organise the fights, older members who will muster support and younger members who will attempt to prove themselves by engaging in disorder. Many of the risk elements consume alcohol to excess and are known to be involved in the recreational use of drugs such as cocaine.…
The risk groups tend to associate themselves with other members who may already be subject to football banning orders pursuant to the Football Spectators Act 1989 s.14B due to their violent behaviour. The risk fans tend to be responsible for serious disorder, criminal damage, assaults and intimidation at football fixtures.…
Some of the older risk fans may maintain certain rules of engagement with rival fans, however many of the younger groups do not abide by the same rules and will not only engage in disorder with like-minded rivals but will also attack 'normal' spectators and have been known to attack disabled spectators."
I mention this purely by way of background, in order to convey something of the scale and intensity of the problems with which the WYP is regularly confronted. During the season, home matches take place generally once a fortnight. One can only admire the stoicism of such officers who are required to carry out these stressful duties, not because of some genuine emergency, but simply as a matter of routine.
An attempt by ACPO and WYP to change the basis of charging
For many years football clubs were normally charged only for SPS on their own property and the costs of policing outside would be borne by public funds, on the basis that it fell within the traditional duty of police officers to keep the peace and maintain public order. Both sides were largely content with these arrangements, although in the Club's case there was an unfortunate "blip" a few years ago when it went into receivership owing WYP over £80,000 for SPS costs, which remain unpaid.
As costs escalated, however, and more and more restraints were imposed on the use of public moneys, it was only natural that attempts should be made to offload as much as possible of the cost involved to the clubs who were responsible for hosting the matches. The opportunity was taken to broaden the basis of claims, so as to include policing within an area of land described as a "footprint" in the vicinity of the relevant stadium—but without regard to whether the land in question belonged to the relevant club, or was under its control. The notion of a "footprint" has no statutory basis (although it is referred to in the latest Home Office Circular, HO 09/2011). It simply emerged as a pragmatic way of identifying the trouble spots within the immediate vicinity of the match location.
For example, the "footprint" proposed in respect of the Club includes parts of the public highway and, in particular, Elland Road to the south of the stadium and Lowfields Road to the east. It also embraced some parking areas including car park A, referred to above, where until recently coaches would disgorge the visiting fans, and the surrounding area where the Club fans would lie in wait for them. I understand that no part of the "footprint" devised by WYP extends beyond a distance of 200 metres from...
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