Support for Turner from Ciderspace

Our good friends at Ciderspace, the excellent Yeovil website, have written an unlikely article.

They are backing Graham Turner's stance in opposing the West Mercia Police efforts to try and charge Hereford United for policing outside the ground as well as inside.

We reproduce it in full:

We Wish Hereford Well

WHAT?! Yes, you read the headline correctly. This site - for the first, and probably last, time ever - is wishing the Bulls******* the best of luck in their latest battle.

There has been little doubt for some time that police forces have been looking to chance their arm, suspecting that a political wind is blowing their way, with their charges on football clubs. Glovers fans are of course well aware of this, with the shambles that was the run up to the Boxing Day match against Swindon Town last season seeing weeks of argument between the club and Avon and Somerset Police over a proposed £40,000 charge.

Football clubs have never baulked at paying for any police presence inside their grounds, but quite reasonably have not been expected to pay for policing in the surrounding area. Even if the additional policing is indeed as a result of the fact a football match is taking place that is not how the principle of policing in this country is structured. Society as a whole pays for policing, whether it be to guard a politician, control a protest march, deal with a disturbance outside a pub or club, or come to your house if it's been burgled.

Now West Mercia Police are, in a case that seems designed deliberately to try to set a precedent, attempting to bill Hereford United not just for the presence inside Edgar Street for their fixture against Swindon Town in September, but for the policing of the nearby car park used by supporters (and of course by others, such as shoppers), which is owned by the Local Authority, and even for the police on the public highway, the A49, running past the ground. The bill that has been presented is over £20,000.

Such is the concern about something that, if the police are allowed to get away with it, could financially cripple clubs, that the Football League's chairman Lord Mawhinney took the time to visit Edgar Street for last Saturday's match against Stockport County to offer his support:

"I am concerned with the dispute between the club and the local police force and was keen to find out the circumstances for myself. While I was at the ground the club took me to see their football arrangements, in particular the car park that is not owned by the club. The Football League is fully supportive of the club regarding the difficulties it finds itself facing."

Of further concern is the issue of a conflict of interest, for it is of course the police themselves who determine the level, distribution and duration of policing they deem necessary for a football match. So no incentive for a budget conscious Chief Constable to try and offset a whole raft of general policing costs, some of which have nothing directly to do with the football club, onto that club? If they get away with things like council car parks and roads in the vicinity of a stadium how long before they start trying to charge clubs for the general policing around the whole of a town throughout a matchday, both before and after games? Then throw in any police presence at the railway station which might be several miles away? Or even general traffic control throughout the whole of their jurisdiction, arguing the volume of traffic is increased by football supporters on matchdays?

Graham Turner, who is owner, chairman and manager of Hereford United, has stated that he will not pay the part of the bill related to policing outside the stadium and will pursue the case to the High Court if necessary. West Mercia Police have declined to comment so far.

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