Agenda item

To receive the reports of:

-       Emergency Planning and Business Continuity Team – Response to Tottenham Riots

-       Haringey Emergency Planning Partnership – review of response to Tottenham Riot Multi Agency Debrief Report

-       Update on learning from the response to the Tottenham Riots

-       Brigade Response – Civil disturbances in London, August 2011

The Chair welcomed Andrew Meek (Head of Emergency Planning and Business Continuity), Spencer Alden-Smith (Borough Commander (Haringey) London Fire Brigade) and Chief Superintendent Victor Olisa (Police Borough Commander).

Andrew Meek provided some context to the discussion.  The incident in August 2011 was the most serious incident to affect the borough in 20 years.  There was pressure to deal with the aftermath of the riots, whilst also being mindful that the 2012 Olympics were fast approaching and the borough needed to be prepared for them.  The Council response and partnership working following the incident was positive.

Spencer Alden-Smith explained that he was not the Borough Commander for Haringey at the time of the riots, however he commented that the emergency services were taken unawares by the scale and widespread of the disturbances.  It was a challenging night, with 98 fire engines used, but the policies and training enabled the Fire Service to react well in these circumstances.

Chief Superintendent Olisa stated that the Met Police had acknowledged that the police service was stretched over the period of time of the disturbances.  On 8 August 2011, there was no intelligence to suggest that there would be any disturbances on the night.  However, it was fortunate that there were a number of extra Police Officers in Tottenham on 8 August due to a football game at White Hart Lane.  The incident was policed professionally and used all available resources to contain the disturbance as best as it could be.  On days 2 & 3 of the disturbances the Met was able to draft additional officers from other parts of the country to London.

Councillor Winskill praised the efforts of the Council and uniformed services in their responses to the incident.  He referred to page 7 of the report, paragraph 2.2.4 and asked how the response may have differed had the disturbances spread to Wood Green.

Andrew Meek explained that there were contingency plans in place to deal with the loss of the Wood Green hub.  There was a back up control centre, and plans in place to recover critical services, although it would be more challenging.

Councillor Winskill referred to the Panorama programme on 14 November which stated that 3000 Police Officers were mobilised on 8 August.  Councillor Winskill asked why the decision was not taken to send all of those Officers to Tottenham.  He asked Chief Superintendent Olisa for an assurance that he would find out whether this number of Police Officers were available and if so, why they were not deployed to Tottenham.

Chief Superintendent Olisa assured Councillor Winskill that he would find out the number of Police Officers who were available.  He added that it would be unlikely that the Police force would have 3000 officers on standby when there was a major incident.  There were extra officers in Tottenham on the 8 August due to the football and these were used when the disturbances began.

Councillor McNamara asked what could have been done differently on the night, and what key changes had been made since.

Chief Superintendent Olisa explained that Met Police did not have the numbers of Officers available to control the scale of the disturbances across London.  If this was to occur again, there would still be a struggle as there were not the numbers available to deal with it.  Police could be mobilised from other forces around the country, but this would then leave depleted forces in other areas.

Spencer Alden-Smith explained that a number of reviews had been carried out by the Fire Service and changes had been made to procedures and public order policies.  He added that the strategic response arrangements had worked well on the night.  Resources for the London Fire Brigade were pan-London, not just for each Borough, so if an incident of this scale were to happen again, there would be the resources to cope with it although it would still be a struggle.

Councillor Rice asked of the plans to reduce the number of Police Officers and operational hours of Police Stations in Haringey.  Chief Superintendent Olisa explained that the number of Police Officers overall was not going to drop – there would be an increase in the number of Police Constables, but a decrease in the number of Officers at management level.  The Police Stations which would be closed were those that were not used and those that could not be cost effectively maintained.

Councillor Adamou asked how the recommendations from the reports presented to OSC were being monitored and was informed that at a Council level there was a Risk & Emergency Planning group chaired by the Director of Resources, and at a partnership level there was the Haringey Resilience Forum which has representatives from all statutory partners, chaired by the Director Public Health.

Members stated that they did not feel that they had been communicated with regularly, especially Councillors Rice and McNamara whose wards were directly affected.  Andrew Meek agreed to look at how this could be improved in the future.  He explained that the Council was currently in the process of recommissioning the alerting service provider.  Andrew added that it was important to remember that the priority for the first few hours was to deal with the incident on the ground and all non-essential communication would be delayed until this had been dealt with.

The Chair thanked Andrew Meek, Spencer Alden-Smith and Chief Superintendent Olisa for attending.

Actions

Andrew Meek to consider how Ward Members are adequately informed of situations within their wards.

ACTION: Andrew Meek

Chief Superintendent Olisa to respond to queries about the status given to the riots and the implications on the timing and scale of the deployment of reserves to the Wood Green Area.

ACTION: Chief Superintendent Olisa