Agenda item

To provide an update on the progress made by partners on the implementation of the recommendations made by Baroness Casey following the UEFA Euro 2020 Final at Wembley Stadium.

Chris Whyte (Director of Environment and Leisure, Brent Council) introduced the report, which provided the Committee with a joint presentation explaining the continued response to the Casey Review of the Euro 2020 Final. He reminded the Committee that the Casey Review was a piece of work commissioned in the aftermath of the Euro 2020 Football Tournament Final, where there had been scenes of disorder, much of which were attributed to the consumption of alcohol and other compounding factors at that particular point in time. The review recommended a number of required actions and a fundamental response from all of the partners involved in the planning and preparation of large-scale events at Wembley Stadium.

In continuing the introduction, the Committee heard that, since the Final, the past two years had seen a programme of work to recover the situation, and new regulations had been introduced as well as ways of working, protocols, and the format around enforcement to ensure the type of events that occurred during the Final did not happen again. There were other recommendations around the security of the stadium building itself and arrangements for stewarding that had also been incorporated into the improvement actions undertaken by partners. Chris Whyte highlighted that the Council was only one of a number of partners undertaking this responsibility and there were colleagues present from the Football Association (FA) to present their overall response as well.

In relation to the work the Council had done, Chris Whyte explained that the Council had introduced controls around the sale and consumption of alcohol that contributed to the scenes of the Final. There were now licensing controls in place so that off-licences in the local area were not permitted to sell alcohol for casual street drinking, which was monitored. This was communicated clearly, not just on the day of the event itself but several days before events, through effective liaison and engagement with businesses. The secondary part of that was enforcement of street drinking on the day of the event, with teams of Council officers on the ground undertaking that enforcement with the Metropolitan Police so that individuals who were in the local area and very clearly consuming or in possession of alcohol were asked to hand it in and refrain from that behaviour. Those 2 strands of work had been very effective in harnessing those problems to the extent that there had been no repeat of the issues seen on the day of the Euro 2020 Final. This was also thanks to local businesses’ willingness to comply. Within the Council it was felt that those arrangements had transformed event days to create a much more family-friendly and welcoming environment with much less opportunity to create the disorder seen on the day of the Final.

As the Metropolitan Police were unable to be present at the meeting due to staffing a large-scale event at the time of the meeting, they had given Chris Whyte some information to share with the Committee on their behalf regarding their response to the Casey Review. The Police were deploying more officers on event days in much greater numbers of up to 400, which was many more than would have been in place previously. They had also looked at the timings of deployment and were bringing police officers into the local area much earlier on event days to give that reassuring presence and profile, which had been effective. The Police were keen to work in a partnership way, and there were a number of different partnership meetings set up as part of that overall preparation and planning framework around Wembley event days that the Police were part of. Another strong focus had been on Formal Football Banning Orders which allowed for the Police to conduct criminal investigations into disorder and misbehaviour, which held individuals to account to the point where they could be prevented from attending football matches over a long-term period. Chris Whyte highlighted that he had been reassured as a local authority by the support the Police had been able to offer with enforcement on the ground.

Chris Bryant (Director of Tournaments and Events, Football Association) detailed the response from the FA to the Casey Review. He highlighted that the FA recognised the transformational impact of the measures put in place by all partners over the past 2 years since the Final. The key to the success of that had been the collaboration of all partners, and the FA had worked with teams from the local authority, Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police, Quintain Wembley Park Ltd, Transport for London, and rail operators to put in a much more robust arrangement to ensuring the right type of environment was being provided to audiences, local residents and businesses.

The Committee heard that there was a new ‘Zone X Co-ordination Centre’, adjacent to the main stadium control room which was where the FA and all other necessary partners were situated on event days. Intelligence could then be passed from the stadium to teams on the ground and vice versa, to enable a co-ordinated response. Brent Enforcement Officers provided a range of support across that footprint, and had confiscated almost 12 tons of alcohol from South Way and Wembley Park Station at the recent Papa John’s Trophy Final which helped to ‘dry up’ the area. This was done alongside off-licences not being permitted to sell alcohol, which was referred to as ‘turning off the tap’ and enabled the FA to better manage the public and reduce anti-social behaviour in those spaces. A number of Civilian Stewards were then provided on Olympic Way to help set the tone and provide the right welcome experience to those arriving in Wembley while also being clear on the behaviour expected. Quiet zones were now implemented around all residential properties immediately adjacent to the stadium, and the points of access were stewarded with a security provision in place to ensure only residents were given access to those areas. An investment in temporary toilet facilities had been made to reduce public urination, and the FA was in the process of evaluating the capacity of those spaces with a view to providing more facilities. Finally there was now the implementation of Fan Zones, which Baroness Casey had been clear in her review were fundamental parts of event day operations. Given the complexities of the legislation at the time of the Euro 2020 Final, Fan Zones had not been possible, but since then there had been significant investment into the delivery of match day fan zone arrangements. There was now East Village on the concourse with a capacity of £3.5k people and the event pad operation adjacent to the stadium with a capacity of 2.5k people. These zones were taking a significant amount of demand and moving people away from public realm areas into licensed premises where there was sufficient resource to manage those operations.

Councillor Butt (Leader of the Council) added that the change in atmosphere since introducing the restrictions on drinking, extra enforcement and additional police presence had been noticeable. A lot more residents were coming to use the facilities in the area on event days and the atmosphere was much calmer, which he felt was a testament to all the work Council officers, police and the FA had put in, working with the organisers of events.

The Chair thanked Council and FA officers for their updates and invited comments and questions from the Committee, with the following issues raised:

The Committee recorded their disappointment that the Metropolitan Police were not able to attend the meeting virtually or in person. They were advised that the Police were very keen to attend but had a commitment at a large-scale football match which meant senior officers with the most relevant input were needed elsewhere. Partners highlighted that their non-attendance was not a reflection on their commitment and the Police had played an active role in the arrangements now in place to improve the event day experience. 

The Committee were pleased to hear about the positive work done around the Wembley Stadium area to address various issues following the Euro Final. They highlighted that they had received reports of issues in other areas of Brent, such as illegal sales, street drinking, public urination and anti-social behaviour, and asked what awareness partners had of those issues being pushed elsewhere from the event area and what further improvement work needed to be made going forward. Chris Whyte highlighted that he would be keen to understand further details about these issues and the locations of these in order to ensure they were discontinued and enforcement officers intervened in the right way. This was new information to partners so would be something partners would need to come together on to better understand. There were borough wide restrictions on the consumption of alcohol in public places, meaning enforcement officers would be able to prevent this, engaging positively with individuals and seeking co-operation in the first instance. The reassurance that could be offered to the Committee was that if alcohol did appear off the train from those locations and came into Wembley Park then it would be confiscated and not consumed. Tom Legg (Head of External Operations, FA) highlighted that it was certainly not the intention to push the problem away from the stadium footprint and partners had a responsibility regardless of where in the borough the issues were. Councillor Krupa Sheth (Cabinet Member for Environment, Infrastructure and Climate Action) added that the Council worked with several organisations including business associations and resident associations across the event day boundary on those issues in those locations.

The Committee asked for clarity on the number of extra staff needed on Wembley event days and where these would be deployed. Tom Legg explained that, for the upcoming weekend for the Emirates FA Cup Semi-Final matches there were 1,900 stewards employed for the weekend in order to cover the external footprint in comparison to pre-euro finals where it would have been 1,500, and 350 police officers in comparison to pre-euro finals where it would have been around 112. It was recognised that fan behaviour was changing, and fans were arriving at the venue earlier than they ever had before. As such, partners were recognising there was more demand on the stadium concourse which was something they were comfortable managing. The early opening of the stadium by 2 hours before kick-off at the weekend was being trialled as a result of this change in order to analyse the impact of that. With the earlier arrival of fans, there was a need to set the tone and partners were now seeing earlier deployment in those areas in order to own the ground. There was compliance and co-operation from fans as a result of any alcohol confiscation and this was attributed to the large communications campaign that went directly to fans as well as local newspapers such as the Manchester News and Sheffield Star to make people aware that the alcohol consumption in public areas would not be tolerated.

The Committee asked whether a steward would have easy access to the Police if a situation was happening in order to deal with the situation. Liam Boylan (Stadium Director, FA) confirmed that they would have that line of communication. Deployment was done strategically and the first layer would be customer facing stewards, who had no powers and were there to advise and welcome fans but who were very good at pointing out the expected behaviour of fans. The next layer was Brent Enforcement Officers who were able to enforce street drinking bans and the sale of alcohol, and the third layer was the Police. Operationally and strategically, the stewards and enforcement officers were made aware of that hierarchy, and the Police could step in where necessary, with collaboration between the 3 entities that worked very well.

The Committee wanted to feel confident and comfortable going forward with the arrangements in place, and asked whether there was effective communication between fan zones and stadium security. In addition, they asked whether the FA were satisfied with the policing of fans where stadium security perimeters ended. Liam Boylan responded that the FA were satisfied with this aspect of arrangements. Before every event there was a tactical meeting where intelligence was shared between the Police, FA, and Wembley Stadium, where the Police informed the FA what their tactical deployment would be and which the FA would align with. Operations were based on a high, medium and low metric by the Police, and the FA aligned their own metrics to that as well, based on the intelligence coming in. He highlighted that the key had been owning the ground earlier through earlier deployment which the Police now recognised. It was important to ensure alignment and satisfaction with the arrangements and the operation that was now in place, alongside the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO), allowed for that. He felt what was now seen on event days was a transient movement from transport hub to event which significantly reduced loitering.

In relation to fan behaviour and attempts to bring about a change in the attitudes of football supporters, the Committee asked what was being done by way of campaigns or projects to challenge attitudes, including racism towards players. James McDoogle (Head of Corporate Affairs, Football Association) informed the Committee of the campaign launched earlier in the football season called ‘Love Football, Protect the Game’ which would be relaunched ahead of the next season working with partners such as the Premier League, English Football League, Match Officials Ltd, and others, so that all parts of the game were working on the campaign. Some work had been done looking at pitch invasions to complement the campaign and improvements had been seen there particularly in relation to pyrotechnics. The campaign had a timeline planned out for the launch and would be a full policy campaign.

In bringing the conversation to a close, the Chair asked whether the reputation of Wembley Stadium had been fully restored following the events of the Euro 2020 Final. Chris Whyte felt the reputation had been fully restored and was proud of the work done to improve the arrangements around event days. It was agreed that the strength of the partnership of key stakeholders involved in the planning and delivery of event days was the key to the success.

The Chair thanked those present for their contributions and drew the item to a close. He invited the Committee to make recommendations, with the following RESOLVED:

i)              To recommend that there is consideration of the impact of event days on the wider borough in further updates on the implementation of the Casey Review recommendations.

ii)             To recommend that the FA involve local Brent residents and infrastructure within national FA anti-racism campaigns, and for future reports to include a wider view of the campaigns currently underway to change fan behaviour.

iii)           To recommend that communications on restrictions of street drinking in surrounding areas, outside of event zones, are developed to encourage good behaviour on event days in these areas.

iv)           To explore possibilities to widen police presence further than Wembley Park on event days.

v)            To explore the impact of online delivery alcohol vendors on fan behaviour and street drinking.

vi)           To recommend that policing continues to be evidence led on match days and that effective communication between branches of the police is continued to ensure event days at Wembley Stadium are safe and can be enjoyed by all, including with British Transport Police.