Police count cost of road evictions

The costs of policing the eviction of three road-protest camps on the route of the A30 scheme in Devon would be in the region of pounds 750,000, police said yesterday.

Chief Constable John Evans told his police authority in Exeter that the cost to the Devon and Cornwall force included training, preparation, and briefing. The police costs are considerably less than the pounds 2m set aside by Mr Evans before his officers began the operations in support of possession orders being enforced at the sites by the Under Sheriff of Devon, Trevor Coleman. But Mr Evans told the authority yesterday: "There is no saving. We did not get an extra penny to undertake this operation. We have spent pounds 750,000 from our budget which was previously allocated to essential tasks."