Does the summer carnival have to pay for the police?
Yes, according to my local councillor, policing is one of the costs of the carnival, though I'm not sure if the cost is because roads have to be closed as well.
I don't think it's really fair to lump the entire industry together like that.
The wages of Manchester United players is not really relevant to Accrington Stanley's policing bill.
The costs of wages across the industry are inflated when the top players can command millions. It happened in rugby union, when the sport turned professional, and I see no reason why the massive increase in salaries (and income) in the top tier would not have filtered down to the lower tiers too.
It would be interesting to compare the salaries of players in League Two now with those in the old Fourth Division thirty years ago.
You could also argue that these ludicrous amount of wages involves ludicrous amounts of tax being paid, which more than covers the policing bill.
You could argue that, but you would have to take into account players registering themselves as offshore companies, and avoiding tax like Amazon and Starbucks have been.
But, I can perfectly see why a train operating company wouldn't want to go out of their way to make a train available for a late-night football crowd. It wouldn't take much damage to the train to cost a lot more than any possible profit.
Money is the bottom line in pretty much every industry these days. I think that the best solution is for the club or supporters association to charter a train, with a financial guarantee to cover possible damage.
I think the sports club could claim they already employ their own security personnel and would be happy to employ more if they weren't required to have a police presence.
How can private security firms do what the police do outside the stadium? Locally, the provide crowd control on public streets, ensure that traffic is not allowed to park in residential streets around the area, to name but two. Security staff may be able to be deployed within the stadium area, but they don't have the powers to be out and about around the ground.
Television studios and nightclubs with a few hundred people attending (similar number to your summer carnival) use their own staff to deal with problems on site, who can call in the police if crimes are committed. For a one off event or a once a year event it's probably more cost and time effective to over police the event opposed to train security staff.
As I understand, nightclubs have to contribute towards local policing costs associated with their business activities, and quite rightly so. TV studios don't normally attract big crowds with a history of violence, and do not have so much impact on the area that they are situated in as football grounds.
The local carnival does have effect on the local area, and I am quite happy for the police to be there to keep the peace as a visible deterrent to anti social behaviour. I am also happy for the carnival to pay towards the policing of the event, and to contribute to it through the entry fee.
Certain large security companies with fully-badged trained staff already provide security for other short-period events such as Wimbledon and the Grand National.
I have no objection to security staff working at the venue, this already happens with the employment of match day stewards (such as at Parc y Scarlets, where I applied for such a position once and was told I needed to have an SIA licence or work towards it). There should also be police in attendance.
I do have sympathy with the view that policing levels may be too high, but I can't agree that a police presence at large scale events is unnecessary.
