PM asks council for 'evidence for security guards'

The prime minister wants Essex County Council to "put evidence on the table" to justify its decision to employ security guards in town and city centres near the Wethersfield asylum centre.

Andy Burnham told BBC Look East the decision to fund patrols in Chelmsford, Braintree and Colchester was "highly unusual", adding it was the job of police to deal with such issues "rather than taking the law into their own hands".

Essex Police said crimes linked to the Wethersfield site were very low.

The Reform UK-led authority said its Operation Vanguard was "a positive and proportionate response to the concerns residents have been raising".

The county council is spending £150,000 on the three-month trial, in direct response to concerns raised by residents about anti-social behaviour when migrants from the site visit the areas.

Speaking to the BBC ahead of Labour's party conference, the prime minister said the trial was "a highly unusual thing to do".

"Councils are at liberty to take local measures in response to local concerns, but I would say first and foremost it is for the police to decide these issues, rather than for people to bypass the police and come up with their own solutions," said Burnham.

"This is why people pay their police precept on their council tax.

"That's the way to deal with issues like these, rather than taking the law into their own hands."

The chief constable at Essex Police, Rachel Nolan, recently told the BBC that "crimes and incidents associated with the Wethersfield site are very low".

"As far as I've seen there is absolutely no reason for anyone to be concerned about criminality associated with migrants from the Wethersfield camp," she said.

In response, Peter Harris, the leader of Essex County Council, said: "Operation Vanguard is a positive and proportionate response to the concerns residents have been raising for many months now.

"Concerns for community safety are clearly there, particularly among women and girls, because of the daily gatherings of asylum seekers – gatherings which will increase in number and size as the facility expands.

"We are building on the evidence base by monitoring the impact of Vanguard over the next three months, and the evidence to date from the public is overwhelmingly supportive of the intervention we have made.

"We are not prepared to sit on our hands and wait for the next incident. We are taking action."

The prime minister was also asked about recent protests in Barnham in Suffolk, where there are plans to move more than 1,000 asylum seekers to a former military base.

There, the parish council is considering holding an independence referendum, to show the strength of local feeling on the issue.

He said he understood the concerns of local people, but added: "There is a challenge in the country in relation to asylum accommodation, and the big call was that we can't carry on using hotels because of the cost of hotel accommodation.

"What I can say to people is I will always be prepared to listen - and indeed I have been talking about these issues with the home secretary, to make sure that whatever we do does respond to local concerns."

When asked if he would take action as well as just listening, he said: "You don't just say something and then do nothing. Where there are changes which we can make, I'm always open to making those changes."

Burnham was also asked about protests during the summer in Thetford in Norfolk, close to accommodation being used by asylum seekers.

He said he had concerns about protests that involved people wearing face coverings "and clearly trying to intimidate people".

"There are legitimate concerns about immigration for certain and I'm hearing those," he said.

But he appealed to people to look at the bigger picture.

"Boat crossings are down 50% this year compared to last year, removals of people who have no basis to stay here are up - that is a big change. The use of hotels is falling.

"I think sometimes people don't want that progress to be seen, they just want to play politics with this particular issue.

"I think we will all be better served if we start having a debate on the facts [and] what can be done, rather than use this for political propaganda purposes."

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