Taxpayers in Beds are being forced to foot a £400,000 annual policing bill to keep Luton Airport safe, despite other smaller airports having their security paid for by the airport operators.
Now a group of county MPs, led by South West Beds MP Andrew Selous and including Luton North MP Kelvin Hopkins, has met police minister Tony McNulty to point out the discrepancy and ask for it to be rectified.
While the Home Office used to pay £1.3 million to police the airport, last year this sum was reduced by £400,000, leaving the county force to make up for the loss.
Beds Police is already £2.5 million short of the money it needs to maintain existing levels of policing next year.
Now the minister will write to Luton airport authorities to ask them to contribute to their policing costs voluntarily as other airports do.
Source: Biggleswade Today
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