THE re-opening of pubs and restaurants on July 4 could be as demanding as \u2018New Year\u2019s Eve\u2019 on officers, Essex Police Federation has warned.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
The Government is aiming to get the night-time economy going again and wants punters to hit the pubs for a pint or two.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
But for already stretched police officers the timing of the opening, on a Saturday, is likely to increase the number of drinkers and potential violence spilling out onto the streets.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
Live football is scheduled to be broadcast that same day, and the long-term forecast looks good, adding to Essex Police Federation Chair Laura Heggie\u2019s concerns.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cI think the biggest challenge now concerning the lockdown changes, is going to be the weekend that the pubs open for the 4th<\/sup>\u00a0of July. We already know that that\u2019s going to be extremely demanding on resourcing and there\u2019s live football that day as well,\u201d she said.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n \u201cThe long-term predictions is that the weather\u2019s going to be good as well. It\u2019s got all the ingredients that are going to bring people out to beer gardens; it\u2019s already been described as a New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be demanding across the whole force.\u201d<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n The high risks posed by the weekend will see some officers being re-rostered and shift patterns change, Laura said.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve already been told that there is going to be several changes to officers\u2019 duties, some will have to move around and re-rostered.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n \u201cWe always knew it was going to come, it was just when it was going to happen, and it was something we couldn\u2019t plan for.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s difficult for officers because with everything that\u2019s got to come into place the notice that they\u2019re going to get, they were only told Friday once it was confirmed what we need.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n \u201cYes, they got a week\u2019s notice, but it\u2019s going to be changing people from an early shift or who thought they were on an early shift to a late or a night turn which then impacts on their next day plus other family commitments.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just peoples\u2019 shifts that concerns them for their home life, especially at the moment with schools not returning as well, you\u2019ve got all childcare issues, you\u2019ve got the fact that people can\u2019t get kids looked after as well. It\u2019s really challenging.\u201d<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n Laura says she hopes officers understand the extraordinary circumstances behind the date and said the force had planned as best it could do.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n \u201cWe need to try to be flexible and to be understanding. There isn\u2019t a lot that the organisation could do,\u201d she said.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that they\u2019ve left it to the last minute. Until the announcement was made, nobody knew when the pubs were going to open for sure.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as that announcement got made, then the planning could be put in place. It would have been wrong for them to have started moving officers\u2019 duties on the possibility it might happen.\u201d Laura added.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n \u201cIn that respect, they\u2019re doing the right thing by leaving it until we knew, but that still won\u2019t necessarily make it any easier for officers that are going to get moved around.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n \u201cIf there are genuine issues concerning childcare or dependents etc., then flag that up as soon as you get the notification with line managers and they\u2019ll have to see what can be done to try and be flexible.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a two-way thing as well, but at the end of the day we are going to need the resources that weekend\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE re-opening of pubs and restaurants on July 4 could be as demanding as \u2018New Year\u2019s Eve\u2019 on officers, Essex Police Federation has warned. The Government is aiming to get\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56415,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134027"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=134027"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134228,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134027\/revisions\/134228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=134027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=134027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=134027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}