Questions raised over whether pro-Palestine protest should be banned on safety grounds

Edinburgh Reporter

7 hours ago

Questions have been raised over whether a pro-Palestine protest in Edinburgh should be banned on public safety grounds.
A Support Palestine rally has been scheduled for 19 July, but officers have said past events run by the same organiser have had inadequate stewarding and management.
The council's public safety department objected to the procession going ahead, with an officer saying: 'The reason for our objection is based on recent experience with this applicant, with serious concerns about the applicant's ability to deliver a safe and controlled procession of this scale in the city centre.
The officer said the organiser of the planned demonstration was also behind demonstrations on 29 March and 5 April, which saw 'serious public safety risks'.
He continued: 'On the 29th of March, the procession caused severe congestion at the junctions of Princes Street, Hanover Street and the Mound.
'This resulted in large groups of pedestrians and vehicles competing for space. Police Scotland had to intervene to expedite the parade's movement across the junction, which was necessary to avoid the deterioration of public safety conditions.
'On the fifth of April, participants in the procession entered the tram route. This created an uncontrolled crowd environment and introduced serious hazards to life and safety.
'Despite assurances from the organisers in advance, no effective stewarding or containment was in place to prevent this.
'Bus and tram services had to be turned around, and participants and the public were placed at considerable risk.'
The officer said that the council's public safety department had concerns over whether the organiser could handle the estimated 2,000 attendees safely, given that the previous demonstrations had been smaller.
A Police Scotland representative followed up to say: 'This is a very difficult event to police continually. There's a public safety risk that concerns us.
'While ad hoc it is manageable, it is becoming a regular occurrence which is becoming logistically challenging for us.'
Earlier in the meeting, SNP councillor Norman Work said: 'I just wondered if there would be concerns about safety?
'I think it should be a rare or special vein for [a procession across Princes Street to occur.] It can cause a lot of disruption.'
Later on, Conservative councillor Neil Cuthbert also questioned what could be done about the parade, saying: 'The applicant for this has also applied on other dates, but they've been withdrawn. Is there anything we should draw from that?
'And is it possible to say, great, it can go ahead, but in a different location?'
Council officer Andrew Mitchell explained to councillors the legal test required for a protest to be banned, saying that it would require the event to 'place an excessive burden on police'.
Conservative councillor and committee convener Joanna Mowat asked the Police Scotland representative if the bar for a ban had been reached.
She said: 'In your opinion, were the issues caused by the previous protests, did that place an unreasonable burden on the police?'
The police officer replied: 'We've had to invoke our emergency powers in order to manage traffic, which we shouldn't have to routinely do.
'But as we look at the burden of the police, we'll ultimately just stop traffic, we will absolutely stop everything in order to maintain public safety. Ultimately, we have the police officers to do that.'
By Joseph Sullivan Local Democracy Reporter
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