PM asks council for 'evidence for security guards' - BBC

The county council is spending £150,000 on the three-month trial, in direct response to concerns raised by residents about anti-social behaviour when migrants from the site visit the areas.

Speaking to the BBC ahead of Labour's party conference, the prime minister said the trial was "a highly unusual thing to do".

"Councils are at liberty to take local measures in response to local concerns, but I would say first and foremost it is for the police to decide these issues, rather than for people to bypass the police and come up with their own solutions," said Burnham.

"This is why people pay their police precept on their council tax.

"That's the way to deal with issues like these, rather than taking the law into their own hands."

The chief constable at Essex Police, Rachel Nolan, recently told the BBC that "crimes and incidents associated with the Wethersfield site are very low".

"As far as I've seen there is absolutely no reason for anyone to be concerned about criminality associated with migrants from the Wethersfield camp," she said.

In response, Peter Harris, the leader of Essex County Council, said: "Operation Vanguard is a positive and proportionate response to the concerns residents have been raising for many months now.

"Concerns for community safety are clearly there, particularly among women and girls, because of the daily gatherings of asylum seekers – gatherings which will increase in number and size as the facility expands.

"We are building on the evidence base by monitoring the impact of Vanguard over the next three months, and the evidence to date from the public is overwhelmingly supportive of the intervention we have made.

"We are not prepared to sit on our hands and wait for the next incident. We are taking action."