Police ‘can’t stop people coming to coast’ panel is told after ‘deep’ concerns raised

Police “can’t stop people coming to the coast”, Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne has warned.

Mrs Bourne’s comments came as she answered councillors’ questions at a virtual meeting of the Sussex Police and Crime Panel on Friday.

The questions came in light of an incident, which saw police issue dispersal orders to a mass gathering at Hove Lawns last Wednesday.

Those to speak included Crawley Borough councillor Michael Jones (Labour), who said: “The emergency dispersal orders issued in Brighton filled me with very deep concern.

“But we have got a lot of seasidetownsinsussexclearly; Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Worthing, Lancing, Shoreham beach, Brighton and Hove, Eastbourne, St Leonards,

Police at Hove Lawns where they carried out a dispersal order and, inset, Katy Bourne

Hastings. The list goes on.

“Not only is there clearly a threat to public health for those going to the beach if they are not socially distancing, but it seems to me to be serious increased risks for residents of

those towns as well.

“It would be terrible if the R, rate of infections, were to increase in these areas because of this and be very unfair on those local residents.”

Cllr Jones also asked if Mrs Bourne felt the ‘mixed messaging’ from government had made the situation more difficult and whether Sussex Police has sufficient resources to deal with such gatherings.

In response, Mrs Bourne said: “You raised some really important points and I don’t think any of us disagree with your concerns around our residents and our coastal areas.

“We have got over 100 miles of coastline in Sussex and, with the best will in the world, police can’t stop people coming to the coast.

“All along the police response to this – as we have eased out of lockdown – was the Four E approach.

“It was to engage with the public, to explain to them why we are doing the social distancing and to encourage them to go home and only to use enforcement as a last measure, as you would expect.

“I think actually Sussex Police has been really good around this and where they have had to issue fixed penalty notices, they have.

“But very interestingly what we are finding is that, very often, a number of these fixed penalty notices are issued to people [from] outside of

Sussex.”

She added that she felt Sussex Police did have sufficient resources to respond to such incidents and had enough PPE to keep themselves safe.

On cllr Jones’ point about ‘mixed messages’ from the government, Mrs Bourne said: “I think it is recognising that the challenges coming out of lockdown were always going to be much harder and unless you can actually go back to normal life as we all remember it, it is going to be difficult.

“But the police are quite clear about where their powers lie.

“It is not in holding up tape measures to make sure people stay two metres apart, hence they have adopted the Four E approach, which has been nationally adopted by policing.”

Mrs Bourne said any measures to stop people going to beaches would be up to government and concerns should be addresed to MPS.