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3 May 2003
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Gloucestershire Police face a huge bill for putting police officers in a posh hotel during the Iraq war. The force needed help from more than 1,000 officers and 43 different forces to defend the RAF base at Fairford and police the peace protests there. They stayed in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Moat House Hotel in Brockworth, which costs £130 per night for business people. The dinner, bed and breakfast rate is £73 per night. Today Acting Chief Constable Martin Baker defended the decision, and reassured the public that the government will be footing the bill. He was responding to a letter in the Echo, written by a reader who was concerned that the police should be staying somewhere so expensive when the police part of the council tax bill has just gone up by 51 per cent. The four-star hotel boasts 120 rooms, a bar, restaurant and health spa with swimming pool. Mr Baker says the Gloucestershire force had no choice because alternative accommodation was either unavailable or unsuitable. "Additionally, other public bodies understandably felt unable to associate themselves with the operation given its links to the war," he said. He stressed that the force negotiated a discount. He also said getting value for money was "a paramount concern". It contributed to the local economy, he said, at a time when hotels don't have many customers. In a letter to the Echo today, he says part of the cost has already been recouped after Home Secretary David Blunkett gave Chief Constable Dr Tim Brain a £250,000 grant to cover costs during March. A second grant is expected and should cover outstanding hotel costs. A police spokesman said: "It's the force's policy not to comment on the specific cost of operations but we are fully audited and our annual accounts are made available to the public. "We can confirm that the Constabulary and Police Authority are seeking the reimbursement of the cost of policing the perimeter of RAF Fairford from Central Government funds. "On the major protest days many of the officers brought in from different forces travelled down and returned home on the same day. "Hotels have only been used in the later stages of the operation when other sources of temporary accommodation, such as transit barracks, were unsuitable." More than 1,000 police were drafted into Fairford on one day alone on March 22 when 4,000 protesters marched on the base. The operation to contain protesters was the biggest in Gloucestershire police's history. |
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