Updated security advice is published

After a request from the Liberal Democrats to release the updated security advice from the Counter Terrorism Security Advisor, the City of York Council has made this advice public.

At the Executive meeting on the 12^th October, the Labour administration decided to open up a number of foot streets in the city centre to blue badge holders.

The Counter Terrorism Security Advisor had written a letter to the Executive, which has now been published, setting out the case for the need to keep the restrictions on vehicle access within the ‘sterile zone‘ in York city centre.

The Counter Terrorism Security Advisor points out:

1. Allowing exemptions would increase vulnerability and reduce the effectiveness of Hostile Vehicle Measures
2. That terrorists would seek to exploit any weaknesses in the scheme
3. The risk of terrorists using fraud/forged documents
4. The risk of vulnerable residents being coerced or forced into carrying terrorists into the sterile zone

Speaking about the updated security advice, Councillor Nigel Ayre, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group said:

“The updated Counter Terrorism advice should have been released to the public by the Labour administration before the 12^th October Executive meeting.

“The professional advice is clear that the decision to allow more vehicles into the city centre foot streets is against their professional advice and will put the public at risk. The Labour administration do not appear to have given this sufficient weight, which is why we did not see the advice made publicly available before the meeting.

“As clearly requested by the security experts we now need to see a full assessment of the risks of allowing more vehicles into the city centre and have a series of actions that can be taken to mitigate these risks before the existing restrictions are reversed as well as updated advice as to whether this is acceptable to experts.

“Liberal Democrats have always been clear that when it comes to the risk to life posed by the terrorist threat, we must follow the advice of the Counter Terrorism experts to keep everyone in York safe.”