Police chief wants control of archives

South Yorkshire’s chief constable has said his force will control the way its archives on the 1984/5 Miners’ Strike are released to the public because he does not want to “just empty stuff onto the street and let people pick at it”.

SOUTH YORKSHIRE’S chief constable has said his force will control the way its archives on the 1984/5 Miners’ Strike are released to the public because he does not want to “just empty stuff onto the street and let people pick at it”.

The force has employed a professional archivist to catalogue its material relating to the strike, including the notorious 1984 Battle of Orgreave, which has rarely been seen and not made public.

Campaigners, who last year were frustrated by the Home Secretary’s refusal to hold a public inquiry into the events at Orgreave, have been calling for all available files to be brought into the public domain.

Stephen Watson, who became chief constable last July, said the issue was “of real concern to people locally”, but suggested there was “a fatigue in the public” about the cost of a further inquiry amid years of police funding cuts.

His comments prompted concern from campaigners, who say “transparency and full disclosure” are the only way to make sure the full facts about what happened are known.

Ninety-five miners were arrested at the Orgreave coking plant, near Rotherham, after clashes with police which left 50 people injured. When the cases came to court, all were abandoned after it became clear that evidence provided by the police was unreliable.

South Yorkshire Police, which has faced calls to release any files it has relating to Orgreave, has its Miners’ Strike material stored at Sheffield City Archives and South Yorkshire Police’s headquarters at Carbrook House, Sheffield.

None of this material, including witness statements, operational papers and arrest records, will be disclosed until criminal proceedings relating to the Hillsborough disaster end. But Mr Watson told The Yorkshire Post that it was being “independently and professionally archived, catalogued and rendered into the position where it could be disclosed” at some point.

He said: “If in the fullness of time some properly structured, independent inquiry comes to the fore, then that would be great.

“Because it will, in fairness to a lot of people who are very concerned about this, will provide them with some of the answers that they seek.

“In the absence of that, we have got some difficult judgements to come forward because what I am not prepared to do is just empty stuff onto the street and let people just pick at it.

“Because we will never keep effective control on public discourse, and it is far from me saying there are things I don’t want the public to know about, and things I do want the public to know about.

“I just want, if the public know about anything, you have got to see it in the full context, and it has got to be done effectively and professionally and in good faith.”

Granville Williams, one of the founders of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, said he had “really serious concerns” about the chief constable’s remarks questioning the benefit of a further inquiry.

He said: “That’s not the view of the OTJC, which remains fully committed to a public inquiry into policing at Orgreave even though Home Secretary Amber Rudd has dismissed this request.

“The chief constable uses revealing phrases about how to manage the files in order to ensure ‘effective control of public disclosure’ and not wanting to ‘empty stuff onto the street and let people just pick at it’.

“Surely the lesson of Hillsborough is that only through transparency and full disclosure will we get to the truth about what happened at Orgreave.”

Only through transparency and full disclosure will we get to the truth. Granville Williams, Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign.