Police and PCC candidate like what they see

Leicester, 18th August 2012. On the opening day of the season, we made our way to Leicester for a roadshow ahead of Leicester City's home game against, fittingly, Peterborough United - one of the two Championship sides already to have come out in favour of safe standing.

The event was arranged by local fans and the chosen venue was The Counting House pub just a few hundred yards from the King Power Stadium. All set up on a paved area outside the pub by late morning on a lovely sunny day, the roadshow went on to attract a good deal of interest from the large crowd of City and Posh fans who came along to see it and to enjoy a pre-match beer. Labour candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner in Leicestershire, Sarah Russell, came along and seemed impressed by the simplicity and logic of the rail seat solution.

She (@Sarah4PCC) later Tweeted: "just been to the Safe Standing rail seats roadshow at the Counting House, seems so straight forward, struggle as to why not supported."

Also in attendance was Chief Superintendent Geoff Feavyour of Leicestershire Police, who was similarly impressed and said later in an interview with the Foxblogger:

"A lot of the fans who are looking are really supportive of having a safe standing area in stadiums. You only need to go to most of the football stadia in the country to see that there's a real want amongst fans to stand up, so I'm sure that looking at ways to do that safely is a good idea. There'll always be people who want to stand and it can create a conflict between stewards and it sometimes involves the police, so if that somehow can be sorted out, it'll be an advantage for everyone involved."

Foxblogger: What do you make of the rail seating?

"Yeah, it's ingenious, isn't it! I understand they use it in Germany, I've seen bigger pictures of bigger areas and it seems to work, you know, it seems to make common sense."

Foxblogger: Would you be supportive of having rail seating in grounds like this one?

"Well, it's not my decision obviously and there's an act of parliament that needs to be addressed. But if it can be done safely, if it can satisfy safety experts, then yes, why not?!"

Further interviews done on the day by the Foxblogger on the day can be heard here.

A write-up on the This is Leicestershire website appears here.