Challenges at COP26

SOUTH Yorkshire Police officers, along with their colleagues from around the country, are working long hours and some have been put up in substandard accommodation at the COP26 conference.

The policing operation at the UN Climate Change Conference is one of the biggest ever in the UK, with more than 10,000 officers attending from forces across the country.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said that policing the conference was a “difficult, challenging time” and that officers who had travelled up from South Yorkshire were finding the conditions to be a “mixed bag”.

He said: “There have been concerns about some of the accommodation. Some officers have said the organisation has been really good and they’ve had a positive experience, and others have had to share rooms and had substandard accommodation, which isn’t good enough.

“It’s a challenge up there, and sadly we’ve seen pictures of officers with fly infestations in their rooms and they’ve had to be moved. It’s a bit tiresome when it seems to happen whenever we go somewhere, there are pockets of poor accommodation.”

Steve added that the South Yorkshire Police officers who were at the conference volunteered to go and were not ordered to attend. But he said he hoped they would get a chance to rest when they returned to the force.

He said: “They’re working very long hours, up to 14-hour shifts, which is obviously very tiring, so we need to make sure that when they come back into force they get a period of rest, which the force has agreed to. It’s going to be a difficult, challenging time up there, so we need to make sure they’re not worn out when they come back.”