The six-mile security perimeter around Forest Lodge, the new home of the Prince of Wales and his family, has not been imposed on a whim.
As reported by the Mail on Sunday yesterday, the exclusion zone of at least 150 acres is a result of serious concerns for the safety of William, Kate and their children. It has been established under Section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.
Any suggestion that the family’s need for privacy played a significant part in the decision is, in my view, so wide of the mark as to be laughable. It’s understandable that ramblers, dog walkers and some neighbours are peeved that the land in Windsor Great Park that was previously open to all is now fenced off. But their right to roam is not more important than the Royal Family’s need for protection from terrorists and others intent on doing them harm.
This is a question of priorities. And the safety of the heir to the throne is the highest priority imaginable.
When I took over as head of Scotland Yard’s Royal Protection Command in 1994, I established a policy which seemed to me to be plain common sense: royals in the direct line of succession were potentially at the highest risk and therefore needed guarding most closely.
Not only is William next in line to the throne but his three children are his immediate heirs. The whole country has a duty to keep them safe, and inevitably that sometimes means sacrifices and inconvenience – such as the loss of dog-walking privileges.
Forest Lodge in Windsor Great Park, the new home of the Prince of Wales and his family
The Prince and Princess of Wales with Charlotte, George and Louis at a carol service at Westminster Abbey earlier this month
Good security is like an onion. It consists of many layers, built up around the core. By establishing an exclusion zone around William’s family home, police hope to maximise the time available for reaction to any potential threat.
More distance means more time. And time is a life-saver.
We don’t know what security measures are in place within Forest Lodge, but I’d be staggered if they do not include rooms designed to withstand assault from outside. Such safe rooms are useful only if the protection squad has sufficient time to get everybody inside.
Royal risk assessments are constantly updated. One current factor might be William’s recent appointment as patron of the Special Air Service Regimental Association. The SAS is detested by many Northern Irish republicans, and IRA splinter groups are regarded as an ongoing security threat to anyone linked to special forces.
Additional fencing was erected at Cranborne Gate in Windsor Great Park ahead of the Waleses moving into Forest Lodge, to help provide an exclusion zone of at least 150 acres
Former head of Royal Protection Command Dai Davies
This danger has been exacerbated by the Labour government’s failure to protect SAS veterans from being hounded through the courts by republicans nursing grievances that date back 50 years to the Troubles.
The Royal Family has always been a target for dissidents and enemy activists. Forest Lodge was built in the 1770s during the reign of George III, who survived nine known attempts on his life, for instance from French and American dissidents intent on overthrowing the British crown.
But today the royals faces credible threats from more sides than at any time in history. Hostile governments and criminal organisations all over the world might be plotting to cause harm – and it is impossible to know how many operatives they have in the UK.
Britain’s borders are now so porous that police now have no idea who is here, among the hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants. That is not a political point: it’s a matter of basic security.
Allied soldiers have recently been fighting in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Syria and in Africa – and now migrants claiming asylum from all those places and many more are here in uncounted numbers. It’s the ultimate security nightmare for police protecting highly vulnerable figures.
The terrorist threat is constant and getting worse. Anyone who looks at the security cordon in Windsor Great Park and thinks this is an issue about public rights of way simply has no understanding of the world today.
Former Chief Superintendent Dai Davies is an ex-head of Royal Protection Command
