AN attempt to avoid a big bill for policing Tavistock?s biggest annual event is to be made this year, following a policy decision made elsewhere in the county. Dozens of extra officers are drafted into the town every year for Goose Fair, which takes place on the second Wednesday in October ? an operation which costs the town council thousands of pounds each year. But at last week?s meeting of the council?s properties committee, Cllr Iain Andrews, committee chairman, said there could be a way of getting round the bill. Cllr Andrews told the committee: ?I see that Dartmouth Regatta got out of paying £10,000 for the policing of the regatta on the grounds it was an historic event. ?Bearing in mind Goose Fair has a much prouder and longer tradition, I think we should be making sure we use that as a precedent ? I think it?s important to be proactive in this, we should be treated in no less a fashion than Dartmouth Regatta.? Town clerk Roger Howard said: ?The charges for Goose Fair have been escalating. They started charging us two years ago at £1,500. Last year it was £3,000 and they said it would be worked out year by year. ?We were reckoning probably about £4,000 this year.? Col Howard said the service provided by police at Dartmouth was ?essentially the same? as that provided at Goose Fair. He said he would be writing to the new acting chief constable of Devon and Cornwall Police to request Tavistock is treated in a similar fashion as Dartmouth has been this year.
Moves to avoid fair policing bill
Wednesday 13th September 2006 10:00 pm
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