Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis has now made a decision with regards to disputed costs charged by the police to Port Vale football club for their operation during the Wolverhampton Wanderers game back in August.
Mr Ellis said: “I’ve met with Port Vale Chairman Norman Smurthwaite this week as well as with senior Staffordshire Police officers, to discuss concerns raised about aspects of the way the game was policed and also the increased cost to the club of raising the match to a higher policing category.
“This has been a highly complex situation and having taken into account all aspects of it, I’ve made the decision that the club only pays the costs originally stated by Staffordshire Police for the lower category game.
“In addition to that I have asked the Chief Constable to update procedures around the way contractual and financial arrangements for policing football matches are made. In future there is to be greater rigour around the pre and post-match engagement with football clubs and in relation to the financial contract arrangements in the following way.
- Where a match is to be raised from a lower category to a higher category more formal communication between the police and the football club must take place as early as possible in relation to agreeing increased charges that will incur.
- A formal record should be made of the pre match operational meeting that is attended by police and the club.
- If a match is raised to a higher category there needs to be a formal post match evaluation between the police and the club on the decision to raise the category and the cost implications.
