Hotel protests are drain on police, warns chief

Police officers have kept protest groups apart during gatherings outside the Brook Hotel in Norwich

Policing hotel protests has affected a police force's ability to deal with crime, a chief constable has admitted.

Norfolk Police has had a regular presence at the Brook Hotel in Bowthorpe, Norwich – which is being used to house migrants.

There have been weekly gatherings there since the summer - some attracting hundreds of people - with many protests and counter-protests about the use of the hotel.

Chief Constable Paul Sanford called for extra resources from the government to police the protests, saying he could not "crack down" on crime "if I've got dozens of police officers stood outside a hotel."

The Home Office is responsible for processing asylum applications and is currently housing around 32,000 people in 210 hotels. The government has pledged to bring an end to hotels being used in this way.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "We are furious at the level of illegal migrants and asylum hotels.

"We recognise and appreciate the essential work of police officers across the country, who dedicate themselves each day to ensuring our safety."

Mr Sanford said that with limited resources he did not have "a big bucket of police officers" to call on

Weekly organised protests at the 81-bedroom Brook Hotel began in August, at the time costing the force an average of £56,000 a week.

A police spokeswoman said the costings were a mixture of standard duty time and overtime, with staff also regularly having rest days cancelled at short notice.

'Brilliant work'

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Sanford said: "I absolutely understand the concerns at that location."

However, he warned policing protests made it harder for officers to "crack down on crimes such as retail theft, knife crime".

"I can't do that if I've got dozens of police officers stood outside a hotel every Sunday or every Saturday for months on end," he added.

"Every time I put people at that hotel, our times responding to calls for service reduce."

Praising the "brilliant" work of his officers, Mr Sanford said the weekly cost of policing at the hotel varied, but the total was now "a considerable amount of money".

Whilst he said he recognised the right for peaceful protest – and that policing has "a role to play in that" – he said the constabulary needed more support.

"What I would ask the government to do is to ensure that we're adequately resourced to deal with those challenges."