Averting Riots, Mopping up and why we all do what we do....



Rapid  communication takes many guises
- this may not be one of them!



Clearly we all owe a great debt of gratitude to Cambridgeshire Police and our own local Peterborough South Neighbourhood Policing Operation, based at Hampton, over what has been a rollercoaster of a week. We also have to salute our own diverse neighbourhoods throughout the City, who have taken a robust stance against ASB and those who seek to abuse our City.

The pundits (or usual suspects) have been all over 24-hour TV and Radio, but we really have to draw the line at,  a recent visitor to Peterborough, historian Dr David Starkey voicing on BBC Newsnight, in best BBC English, one of the looters rapping style text messaging...even too much for us to take in.

Indeed Julian Bray used our own broadcast studio linked to BBC Cambridgeshire, discussing the merits of the little known Riot (Damages) Act, which enables people who are, or are NOT insured, to claim directly against the the police authority for riot damage. (full details at http://parkfarmneighbourhoodwatch.blogspot.com/2011/08/riot-damages-act-1886-says-we-all-pay.html  )


Originally the limit for Riot damage claims was 14 days from the time of the riot. Our prime purpose was to quickly alert all those who may know someone in one of the riot blighted areas, who has suffered, possibly losing their home and/or business and to enable them to get the claim in before the deadline.

We also wanted to send out a continuing PFNW clear marker to our own misguided 'one percenters' - who avidly read this news blog,- that we are all still on alert, ready with our camera phones, and passing information and intelligence to police and PCC channels,  in some cases members who wish to remain anonymous, are also dealing directly with Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.  Currently our 30 day page hit counter is recording over over 4,100 page views.

What might be termed 'normal' levels of crime still have to be serviced and indeed as a result of PFNW information, three significant arrests were made by our Peterborough South Neighbourhood Policing team in the last couple of days.

Stanground and Park Farm has a high number of London commuters as residents, and frankly reliable information within the riot blighted areas elsewhere is sometimes hard to come by.  David Cameron, the Prime Minister,  must have borrowed our script, as hours later, following our BBC radio broadcast, then zeroed in on the very same Riot (Damages) Act and promptly extended the 14 day deadline to 42 days.  The confusion, has we understand,  been caused, as it is widely known that the Riot Act, as such was done away with some years ago, but amazingly the Riot (Damages) Act slipped through the net and is therefore still active and very much on the statute book. Even The Daily Telegraph managed to get this wrong.

But when you have lost everything where do you start? Another of our members alerted us by phone  (PFNW -01733 345581) of the little known Pro-bono legal advice scheme being set up by the Law Society for ALL riot victims. Top UK law firms are giving their time and expertise for free and the service starts this week. As soon as we have the names of Peterborough Law firms who have joined the scheme, we will post the details on here. Little of this information gets onto rolling news television as simply the visual images are not there to support it, although Sky, ITN, BBC  and Sky News has used our news blogs many times in the past.

Closer to home, the day to day work of crime prevention and maintaining a quality of life and low levels of Anti Social Behavior is the prime aim of  Park Farm Neighbourhood Watch, after all we all LIVE here!

Not everyone understands how we manage to achieve the results we do, the simple message is that we intelligently use social media and radio/ broadcast circuits, we use several different communication channels to rapidly spread information and to put in place alerts. A simple posting on our website is automatically picked up by police intelligence, the print media, local press and broadcasters also selected national and international outlets. These in turn cascade our information and comment via a series of requested RSS feeds. The RSS feeds are retransmitted internally to appropriate producers and editors. Wherever possible we also offer contact details of local authority partners and organisations, so they too can get substantiated and time sensitive information released quickly.

There has also been some misguided talk of the damage caused by 'social media' in terms of  false and deliberately misleading information.  We suggest that locally, members and supporters make frequent visits, if you are on twitter, to @cambscops will ensure the information you have is not only accurate but right up to date as the twitter account is directly serviced by cambridgeshire police.

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.. (C) Stanground & Park Farm News 2011 (C)Park Farm Neighbourhood Watch 2011, Peterborough,UK E&OE Tel: 01733 345581 ALL ENQUIRIES LOCAL NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICE: 0345 4564564 OR Dial 999alternatively CRIMESTOPPERS on FREEPHONE 0800 555 111 **** Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, an independent of police charity, will anonymously take and pass on confidential information on crime, knife crime and domestic violence. **** >> Broadcast Quality ISDN 01733 555319 ISDN Codecs G722&ATX >> Media Enquiries: JULIAN BRAY 01733 345581 http://tinyurl.com/STANGROUNDPFNW

The Riot (Damages) Act 1886 PM says all victims have 42 Days to apply

London Bus 'torched'.... The Riot (Damages) Act 1886
PM says all victims have 42 Days to apply..

LATEST:  The Prime Minister David Cameron MP has today (11 August 2011) announced to a specially recalled Parliament that householders and businesses, insured OR NOT, now have an extended 42 days to apply for compensation (see Act below), the current limit of 14 days as Julian Bray discussed on BBC Cambridgeshire this morning has been set aside.

The damage caused by the events in London and elsewhere is extensive and the costs involved will be massive. Who pays? There is the Riot (Damages) Act 1886. Section 2 of the Act states:

"(1) Where a house, shop, or building in a police area has been injured or destroyed, or the property therein has been injured, stolen, or destroyed, by any persons riotously and tumultuously assembled together, such compensation as hereinafter mentioned shall be paid out of the police fund of the area to any person who has sustained loss by such injury, stealing, or destruction; but in fixing the amount of such compensation regard shall be had to the conduct of the said person, whether as respects the precautions taken by him or as respects his being a party or accessory to such riotous or tumultuous assembly, or as regards any provocation offered to the persons assembled or otherwise.

"(2) Where any person having sustained such loss as aforesaid has received, by way of insurance or otherwise, any sum to recoup him, in whole or in part, for such loss, the compensation otherwise payable to him under this Act shall, if exceeding such sum, be reduced by the amount thereof, and in any other case shall not be paid to him, and the payer of such sum shall be entitled to compensation under this Act in respect of the sum so paid in like manner as if he had sustained the said loss, and any policy of insurance given by such payer shall continue in force as if he had made no such payment, and where such person was recouped as aforesaid otherwise than by payment of a sum, this enactment shall apply as if the value of such recoupment were a sum paid."

An interesting recent case concerning the Act is Yarl's Wood Immigration Ltd v Bedfordshire Police Authority [2008] EWHC 2207 (Comm) Beatson J. This decision was reversed by the Court of Appeal (Rix, Wall and Aiken LJJ).

In April 2002, the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee report on the Police Reform Bill said:

"The Association of Police Authorities wrote to the Home Office five months ago prior to the fire at Yarl's Wood detention centre - asking for repeal of the Riot (Damages) Act 1886. The Act makes police authorities liable for damages to buildings and their contents if a riot occurs under the Public Order Act - even if there has been no negligence of default by the police. The Government has said that this being reviewed, following riots in Bradford, Oldham and Burnley in 2001. The Minister told us: 'The broad issue of whether an Act which is well over 100 years old is still appropriate has been raised. I honestly cannot say to you whether any conclusions will be reached about that in the timetable of the Bill and the issues are quite complex.' The Riot Damages Act 1886 seems arcane and a good case has been made for repealing it. Without prejudice to any existing cases, the Government should seek to repeal the Riot Damages Act 1886."

The Act remains in place. It is obvious that any damages paid out under the Act will ultimately be passed on to council taxpayers. The costs of insurance will rise. It seems to me to be likely that, in the aftermath of these events, the coalition Government will act fairly quickly to replace the Act using the economic climate as a reason.
Civil Contingencies Act 2004? The powers in the Act could be used. However, this seems to be ruled out at the moment.

Courtesy: ObiterJ is the author of the Law and Lawyers blog.  Follow ObiterJ on Twitter.



.. (C) Stanground & Park Farm News 2011 (C)Park Farm Neighbourhood Watch 2011, Peterborough,UK E&OE Tel: 01733 345581 ALL ENQUIRIES LOCAL NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICE: 0345 4564564 OR Dial 999alternatively CRIMESTOPPERS on FREEPHONE 0800 555 111 **** Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, an independent of police charity, will anonymously take and pass on confidential information on crime, knife crime and domestic violence. **** >> Broadcast Quality ISDN 01733 555319 ISDN Codecs G722&ATX >> Media Enquiries: JULIAN BRAY 01733 345581 http://tinyurl.com/STANGROUNDPFNW