The total bill for the policing of animal rights protests at Hillgrove Farm is a staggering £4.8m.

The full cost has emerged in a Thames Valley Police request for compensation to Home Secretary Jack Straw.

Ironically, Mr Straw has a home a mile from Hillgrove Farm, at Minster Lovell, near Witney, which was the number one focus for animal rights campaigners from all over the country and abroad.

Farmer Chris Brown was breeding cats for medical research but shut down the business in August following a concerted three-year campaign of demonstrations, some resulting in ugly and violent clashes between police and protesters.

The costs are included in an £11m bid which also covers the bill for policing the construction of the Newbury Bypass where there was a long-running protest by environmental campaigners.

The £4.8m bill is made up of £2.9m for drafting in officers to police the farm and the demonstrations, £1.7m for "knock-on" effects elsewhere in the force, and £200,000 in outstanding unpaid overtime.

With police from all over Thames Valley brought to Hillgrove, many stations could only be manned by other officers working extra shifts.

It was a long-running national campaign and took hundreds of officers away from their normal duties or rest days on a regular basis. Chief Constable Charles Pollard said: "There is no doubt this huge drain on resources had a long-term effect on the force which is now starting to show itself in some of our levels of performance."

Animal rights campaigner Cynthia O'Neill, of Milton-under-Wychwood, said: "It is not the full costs, it is a drop in the ocean. What about all the court costs? And what about all the compensation claims for wrongful arrest?"

Story date: Saturday 04 December

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