Officers face leave ban due to Ipswich Town games, says Police Federation

Police in Suffolk are seeing weekend leave banned in order to work at Ipswich Town games

Police have seen leave banned and rest days cancelled in order to maintain a presence at Ipswich Town matches, a policing body said.

Darren Harris, chair of Suffolk Police Federation, said the move was having "a huge impact on their morale".

Budget cuts had "decimated" numbers, with "no corresponding reduction in the demands placed upon them", he said.

Suffolk Police said resources were "carefully considered for each match by experienced police commanders".

Ipswich Town matches have been sold out for most of the season, with attendances of about 29,000 at Portman Road.

The club is currently battling for promotion from the Championship, with three games to go.

In a post on the Suffolk Police Federation website, Mr Harris spoke about the pressures he believed officers were under.

"In Suffolk, this has been compounded throughout autumn and winter 2023, and into spring this year by the inability of the constabulary to be able to resource football matches without cancelling our members' rest days and putting in place annual leave bans on match days," he said.

"When many of our members get very few weekend days off anyway, this has, and continues to have, a huge impact on their morale.

"On top of this, we have seen years of budget cuts which have decimated police officer numbers but we saw no corresponding reduction in the demands placed upon them."

A Suffolk Constabulary spokesman said: "Suffolk is fortunate to have a football club on the ascendancy and looking for promotion to the Premier League for next season.

"Nearly every match is a sell-out with attendance close to 29,000 and, as such, police have a key role to play in keeping people safe.

"Sometimes decisions have to be taken at short notice.

"These are difficult decisions and are not taken lightly and we are always acutely aware of the upheaval this can potentially cause to them [police officers] and their families."

Ipswich Town Football Club declined to comment.

Police officers in Suffolk are seeing weekend leave cancelled in order to resource football matches

Hundreds of new officers have been recruited in Suffolk over recent years, but there has been criticism that recruitment had not kept up with the increase in the local population.

Government figures showed that in March 2023, there were 184 police officers per 100,000 people in Suffolk.

In neighbouring Norfolk, there were 207 officers, in Essex 201 - and in Cambridgeshire 193.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "We are giving the police the resources they need to tackle crime, and through our police recruitment campaign we have more police officers in England and Wales than ever before.

"Suffolk Police's funding will be up to £171.1m in 2024/25, an increase of up to £10.8m when compared to 2023/24."

What do Suffolk's police and crime commissioner candidates say?

Policing numbers is one of the big issues ahead of the election of the police and crime commissioners, whose job it is to hold the chief constable and the force to account and set the annual budget.

Voters in Suffolk will head to the polls on 2 May.

There are four candidates standing, and this is what they told the BBC about police officer numbers:

Tim Passmore, Conservative

Tim Passmore has been in the role since 2012

Mr Passmore said: "There are now many more officers than ever before with the total standing at 1,425 at the end of March 2024.

"Whist some are still being trained, this has supported the new policing model launched last December which is delivering a step change in community policing, visibility and accessibility - something I know Suffolk taxpayers want."

James Sandbach, Liberal Democrats

James Sandbach said he wanted to abolish the role

Mr Sandbach said: "I'm running on a platform to abolish the office of the police and crime commissioner in Suffolk and put that money into our local frontline police services, crime prevention and victim support."

Rachel Smith-Lyte, Green Party

Rachel Smith-Lyte is a councillor in East Suffolk

Ms Smith-Lyte said: "I would resist further cuts to our critical police service in Suffolk, send a message to the government that people need police back on the ground, while seeking to ensure officers feel supported, resourced and valued to do the best job they can."

Sir Robin Wales, Labour

Sir Robin Wales was previously the mayor of Newham in London

Sir Robin said: "You need to get more police, but you don't just need more police, you need to have police who can understand the locality.

"One of the problems we've got, there's been an increase in policing numbers because we sacked everybody 10 years ago and we lost all the experienced coppers."