LABOUR councillors are seeking Government guidance about whether they can prevent the far-right English Defence League from holding demonstrations in Bradford.

But the council's Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups have expressed alarm at the suggestion, saying it poses a risk to the principle of free speech.

Councillors will meet at City Hall today to debate the issue, with the Council's ruling Labour group putting forward a motion which seeks ways of restricting EDL protests in future.

What the law says about the right to protest

The Labour motion, put forward by Councillor Sinead Engel (Clayton and Fairweather Green) and seconded by Council leader David Green, cites the high cost of policing the demonstrations, as well as the damage to the community and local economy.

It says that "despite the claim that these are peaceful assemblies, the evidence of our district and elsewhere in the country is that both in practice and intention this is not the case".

 

Cllr Engel said the right to protest peacefully was "fundamental and vital", but the EDL had a track record of arrests at its demonstrations.

The group has come to the district four times in the past five years, most recently staging a rally in central Bradford last month, which saw eight people arrested. Here is a video from that demonstration.

And she said the events were hugely costly to the Council and police, using money which would otherwise be spent on frontline services.

She said they were seeking Government guidance about any ways the Council could refuse to accommodate demonstrations by groups with a history of non-peaceful protests.

She said: "I want Bradford to have the freedom to say no, but as the law stands now, we don't have that freedom."

But Conservative leader Councillor Simon Cooke accused Labour councillors of seeking to ban public demonstrations by organisations they disapproved of.

He said: "In simple terms: one, I don't think we should be spending public money on finding out whether we can ban the EDL.

"Secondly, free speech and free assembly matters and if we can't have these things our society is worse for it."

And Liberal Democrat group leader Councillor Jeanette Sunderland said: "It's the thin end of the wedge, when you start deciding who can and who can't speak.

"You might ignore them when they do come here, but we have got to treat everybody with an equal hand."

West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Mark Burns-Williamson, said he would welcome a review of the situation, saying a single EDL protest had cost West Yorkshire Police about £750,000.

He said: "That is money I would much rather see invested in more officers keeping our communities safe.

“I welcome anything that seeks a constructive way for the future to see how such protests can be appropriately managed and funded without impacting on already stretched budgets."

Paul Meszaros, Bradford organiser for the anti-extremist campaign group Hope Not Hate, said protests by the EDL made "a lot of people scared".

He said while the right to protest was important, he would like to see the Home Office advising the police to use existing laws "more robustly" to clamp down on violence and racist behaviour at demonstrations.