Asylum patrols set up after public 'concerns'

Essex County Council said it set up security patrols in three towns after "concerns voiced by communities directly to members" about asylum seekers.

The Reform UK-led council was responding to a call from the Prime Minister to "put evidence on the table" to justify the £150,000 scheme.

Six guards are patrolling Braintree, Chelmsford and Colchester between 10:00 and 18:00 each day because of "a fear and perception of a risk of crime" linked to asylum seekers housed at a former military base. Essex Police said crime linked to men at MDP Wethersfield was "very low".

In a letter, council leader Peter Harris said he would not "hide behind statistics... before taking reasonable preventative action".

In an interview with BBC East last week, Andy Burnham said the patrols – known as Operation Vanguard – were "a highly unusual thing to do".

Burnham said it was "crucial" to "work through local policing... rather than taking the law into their own hands".

"It's for Reform UK to put the evidence on the table to show why that is justified – if it's playing politics, then it's not justified," the Labour PM said.

Between 800 and 1,245 asylum seekers live at Wethersfield.

All of them are men aged between 18 and 65.

According to Harris, up to 17 minibuses take men from the base to the three Essex towns each day.

A council report into the decision to launch Vanguard said the issue was "not whether individual people represent a risk, but whether the arrival and departure of significant numbers of people at specific locations... creates a significant fear of crime and makes residents feel unsafe".

There was "anecdotal evidence", it added, "that the presence of this community of asylum seekers created a fear and perception of a risk of crime".

The BBC asked the council if an impact assessment had been done before Vanguard launched, how any anecdotal evidence was collected and analysed, what other evidence had been collected, and if it would share that evidence with the prime minister.

In a statement, a spokesperson said: "The decision to launch Operation Vanguard was based on concerns voiced by communities directly to members."

The council received "regular updates" from the company operating the patrols "against specific [key performance indicators]".

The authority intended to "publish data related to the delivery of Operation Vanguard", the spokesperson added.

Council officers carried out an "equalities impact assessment", which assessed the scheme's potential impact on people with "protected characteristics", including gender, age and race.

It concluded the scheme presented a "medium" risk of "negative" impacts linked to race.

In an open letter to Braintree District Council's Conservative leader, published on Monday, Harris said he would "make no apology" for introducing the three-month pilot scheme.

The Reform leader said his "first responsibility" was "to the safety and wellbeing of Essex residents... many of whom have expressed deeply held concerns".

Men living at Wethersfield "come from cultures very different from ours, including societies where the rights, freedoms and treatment of women and girls differ markedly from the standards rightly expected in Britain".

He added: "One serious assault is one too many.

"I am not prepared to sit on my hands, hide behind statistics and wait for another woman or child to become a victim before taking reasonable preventative action."

Vanguard's "effectiveness" would be assessed through "reported incidents, referrals to Essex Police, public feedback, engagement with businesses, visible patrol activity and residents' perceptions of safety", Harris wrote.

Lee Scott, leader of the Conservative opposition at the county council, said he had "not opposed" the decision to launch Vanguard.

But he added: "It's going to be fully, fully scrutinised."

He is chairman of the council's corporate policy and scrutiny committee and said he was planning to discuss the scheme at its first meeting after the trial period finished.

David King, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the county council, questioned whether working with the district and city councils, some of which had their own wardens, might have been better "value for money".

He said: "If they are serious about the safety of the community, the way to do this was working together and that means working with the local councils, with their contacts and connections."

Responding to King's suggestion, a county council spokesperson added: "Partners have been communicated with about Operation Vanguard, however it is an Essex County Council initiative."

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