MILLENNIUM CELEBRATIONS: Met's Sydney plan `a waste of money'

PLANS TO send a police officer to Australia on December 31 to give a 12-hour warning of a potential millennium-bug crisis were yesterday criticised as "absolutely ridiculous".

Scotland Yard hopes the officer posted in Sydney will alert colleagues in London to any possible breakdown in basic computerised systems.

But Dave Rodgers, vice president of the Metropolitan Federation which represents the force's 25,000 officers, described the scheme as a "complete waste of money".

"With modern communications we can easily talk to people in other countries so we don't need to send a policeman out there," he said.

"Besides, if there is a complete melt-down the officer won't be able to speak with anyone in England anyway."

He added: "The Met are struggling to find the money to put more officers on the beat, and yet they are prepared to spend thousands of pounds on something like this. I really can't believe it."

Scotland Yard said the Met is hooking up with the intelligence network across Europe as part of a huge police operation to guard against civil disturbances marking the start of the new century. Up to three million people are expected to join celebrations in the capital on December 31 and all police leave has been cancelled to cope with any potential problems.

Commissioner Sir Paul Condon said: "We are not expecting strange patterns of behaviour. We just want to be aware, particularly around the millennium bug, if there is any sort of reaction in parts of the world it hits first."

The operation will also assess how officers are dealing with possible crowd problems.

Over the 36-hour period of the millennium in the capital, 12,000 officers will be on duty. Police are prepared to deal with revellers falling in the river, murders or even terrorist attacks.