Most expensive security event in history: Royal wedding cost rises to £20m as police earn double time for working bank holiday
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Created 11:59 AM on 6th March 2011
Created 11:59 AM on 6th March 2011
The Met is struggling to meet the cost of security for the royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton because thousands of officers will earn double time for working on a bank holiday.
It's estimated the event will now cost as much as £20m, which dwarfs the £7.4m price of security at the G20 protests in London in 2009.
As a more direct comparison, the 1981 wedding between Prince Charles and Diana Spencer was estimated to have cost £4m - which equates to around £12m today.
Double bubble: The cost of the wedding of Prince William and Miss Kate Middleton has hit £20m because it has been declared a bank holiday
The April 29 wedding is now said to be the most expensive security event staged in Britain.
Because of Government-imposed budget cuts, The Met is so hard up it has sent a 'begging letter' to the Home Office asking for help in meeting the extra costs, which were piled on when David Cameron declared the wedding day a bank holiday.
The event will bring together all of the Royal family and many senior government figures, as well as 50 foreign heads of state invited by the happy couple.
Irish and Islamic terrorist groups are considered serious threats to the occasion, while there are also fears over anarchist groups and hundreds of lone individuals with known mental health problems who have stalked members of the royal family.
Commemorative coins: The wedding on April 29 is now thought to be the most expensive security operation staged in Britain
Peter Smyth, Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, told The Sunday Times: 'David Cameron made it a bank holiday. The money that it costs for that day will come out of the Met police budget, which he's already set about cutting.
'Cameron made the decision. He should pay for it.'
The operation is expected to require thousands of officers to line the streets of the capital along the route from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey.
In addition, thousands will be needed on rooftops for surveillance and thousands more working behind the scenes on counter terrorism measures.
Double time for officers - known as 'double bubble' in the trade - is estimated to have cost the taxpayer £500m last year.
Scale: The security operation calls for thousands of officers to line the streets from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey
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