Devon and Cornwall Police say locals won't be trapped in their homes during G7
People living in the Carbis Bay areas will be told about road closures next month but the force is working to minimise the impact
Police preparing to support the G7 summit in Cornwall this summer have reassured people that they will not find themselves trapped in their homes while world leaders visit the Duchy.
The event in June will see world leaders gathering in Carbis Bay and it has been revealed that there will be around 6,500 police officers and staff in Cornwall as part of the security operation.
Superintendent Jo Hall today said that while there would be disruption to local people caused by the event she hoped that it would be kept to a minimum.
Speaking at Devon and Cornwall Police Headquarters in Exeter she explained that the G7 summit will be the biggest policing and security event to be held in England this year.
However she said that while it was important that the G7 event goes ahead with no problems the police want to make sure that local communities are not forgotten.
“The important thing for us is communities, we really want to keep the communities engaged, involved, we want to hear their feedback because ultimately we are keeping the event safe but we want to keep life going for our communities as well and minimise any disruption because people just want to be able to get their kids to school, or get about their business or go to work.
“We are doing a lot of work with our communities to try and make sure that we do the very best to minimise the impact on them.”
She said that the main question received by police was about possible disruption which could be caused by the event.
“Disruption is inevitable and that has probably been the biggest question we have had since it was known that G7 was coming and we haven’t been able to give specific information until now.
“The reality of it is the closer you are to those four venues and the closer to the event times you are the more likely you are to see disruption. But we are not talking about weeks of disruption we are talking more about days.”
However she warned that it was likely that there would be road closures in areas around the venues being used for the event.
“Our intention is to only close what we need and only close it for a short period of time that we want. People are not going to be locked in their houses, I was asked by someone if their mum would be able to get out of her house, so there will always be pedestrian access and we are not locking people indoors, but I would say expect disruption if you are close to those venues but we will do our best to minimise it.”
Superintendent Jo Hall
The updates were given following a Facebook Live event for locals to raise any concerns they might have about the G7 and the launch of the summit's official policing website.
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