Bush's pounds 1m lunch bill.

Byline: By Paul Linford Political Editor

North-East taxpayers are facing a pounds 1m "lunch bill" as President George Bush prepares to fly into the region on Friday.

After weeks of speculation, Downing Street finally confirmed yesterday that Mr Bush will visit Prime Minister Tony Blair's Sedgefield constituency at the end of his state visit to the UK starting today.

The president is expected to be greeted by hundreds of anti-war protesters from the region, while North-East MPs have also expressed disquiet over the timing of the visit.

But aside from the political fall-out over the trip, a huge row is brewing over whether local taxpayers - or the Government - should meet the estimated pounds 1m cost of policing it.

Durham Constabulary confirmed that more than 1,300 police officers will be on duty on Friday in what they said would be the biggest operation they have ever mounted.

All police leave has been cancelled and hundreds of officers have been drafted from the neighbouring Northumbria and Cleveland forces.

Assistant Chief Constable Gary Barnett, who is heading the security operation, said the force would be applying to the Home Office to recoup the cost of the policing the visit.

But pressed on the issue by The Journal, Downing Street signalled the bill would have to be met out of the force's existing budget, part of which comes from council taxpayers. Mr Barnett said yesterday: "The operation is not one which the allocation of funding for Durham would ordinarily be expected to cover. It is a very complex operation. It involves a lot of expense for which the force has not been able to budget, and discussions are ongoing with the Home Office," he added.

However Mr Blair's spokesman said: "There are budgets which go to police authorities to cover their costs and this will be funded in the usual way from the usual budgets that they have."

The vice chairman of Durham police authority yesterday admitted members had not been given any details of the visit, or how much it will cost to the council taxpayers.

Durham Police Authority vice-chairman Joe Knox said: "We have not been kept informed of what is happening. Once the visit is over we will be raising a number of questions, and demanding answers.

"We will certainly want to know who will eventually foot the bill."

A similar row is brewing in London where the Metropolitan Police is demanding the Home Office recoup a pounds 5.5m bill for an operation involving 14,000 officers.

Mr Bush will fly to the region on Friday morning for lunch with Mr Blair and some of his constituents at an undisclosed venue in the Sedgefield area, before returning to the US with his wife Laura.

As revealed by The Journal last week, there had been plans for the president to make a longer stay in the region, taking in visits to Durham Castle and Durham Cathedral. However this idea appears to have been scuppered by objections from the US secret services over security implications.

Leaders of the anti Iraq war coalition in the region will be meeting tonight to finalise their plans for a demonstration against the visit.

"People are going to be meeting to plan some imaginative protests that will hopefully get our message across," said spokesman Phil Capon.

Mr Barnett said the police operation would be designed to "balance the needs of security against people's rights to demonstrate peacefully."

Standing firm on invite to Bush

Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday said he stood by the decision to invite George W Bush to Britain, despite mounting opposition from anti-war campaigners.

Mr Blair said Britain was right to "stand firm" beside the United States in the fight against terrorism and insisted troops had not died in vain in Iraq.

His comments, at the CBI annual conference in Birmingham, came as Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy gave his backing to planned protests, which are expected to bring tens of thousands of people onto the streets of London on Thursday.

Mr Blair said terrorist outrages in Turkey and Saudi Arabia and the bombing of United Nations and Red Cross buildings in Iraq made this week's visit all the more appropriate.

"This is the right moment for us to stand firm with the United States in defeating terrorism, wherever it is, and delivering us safely from what I genuinely believe to be the security threat of the 21st century," he told the CBI.

Mr Blair rejected claims that servicemen had died in vain in Iraq, saying they were involved in a "worldwide struggle against fanatical and extremist groups".

However, Mr Kennedy said anti-war protesters should be given the opportunity to make their views known.

"Many people will wish to protest when the President is here. There should be no repeat of the scenes during the visit of the President of China, when peaceful protesters found their activities curtailed unreasonably," he said.

Mr Bush will be privately greeted by the Prince of Wales on his arrival this evening and will be the guest of the Queen at a banquet at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday.

During the visit, he will meet relatives of British victims of September 11 as well as servicemen who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and the families of troops killed in Iraq.

But Reg Keys, father of Lance Corporal Thomas Keys, who died in Iraq, said he felt "deceived" by Mr Bush's "propaganda" about the war.

"What threat was Iraq to us? We were all led to believe that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction that were about to be unleashed on us, but it hasn't materialised. I feel deceived," he said.

Former Armed Forces Minister and Newcastle North MP Doug Henderson hit out at Mr Bush's decision not to address both Houses of Parliament, amid fears of heckling from anti-war MPs.

"It not only shows he is chicken, but it is a great discourtesy," he said.

Another former minister, North Tyneside MP Stephen Byers, stoked the controversy over the visit yesterday by attacking Mr Bush's refusal to abandon tariffs on imported British steel.

Mr Byers called for reciprocal trade sanctions to be imposed on four key states - Florida, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Iowa, that Mr Bush will need to hold in next year's presidential elections.

Protest at palace

A grandmother and veteran peace campaigner climbed the 20ft high gates at Buckingham Palace yesterday to protest at the George W Bush's state visit.

Lindis Percy, 61, scaled the metal gates at the front entrance of the palace, where the US president will be staying, shortly after 4pm.

Mrs Percy, a co-cordinator of the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases UK, spent two and a quarter hours clinging to the gates before coming down voluntarily.

Police arrested her on suspicion of causing criminal damage and breach of the peace before taking her to Charing Cross police station.

The lone protester wore a yellow camouflage jacket and unfurled a US flag upside down on the gate.

US elite descend on Trimdon

Residents stared from the windows of their terraced homes in disbelief yesterday as four giant helicopters swooped down on their tiny village.

The dramatic exercise unfolded outside Tony Blair's constituency home ahead of George W Bush's official visit on Friday.

Two Sikorsky aircraft from the US Navy's elite Black Stallion combat support squadron landed first on the field in Trimdon Colliery, County Durham.

They were followed by two further helicopters bearing US government livery.

Their arrival was greeted with alarm in the village.

Many people emerged from their homes with cameras and camcorders to capture the event.

Ben Fletcher, 67, said: "I was in my allotment when I heard this sound and I looked above the houses and these two huge helicopters appeared from nowhere with a deafening noise.

"The whole street where I live was filled with people staring into the sky. Nothing like this has happened in Trimdon before and it is obviously in preparation for George W Bush's arrival."

Around 40 officers were on patrol with representatives from British Gas and Northumbria Water. Draining systems along roads surrounding the Prime Minister's home, Myrabella, were blocked off and gas metres, found on the sides of resident's homes, were covered in rubber casings.

A number of police `spotter' planes were also seen overhead as residents went about their daily routines.

But villagers in Sedgefield appeared under-whelmed at the prospect of hosting the first visit by a US President to the North-East since Jimmy Carter in 1977.

They have become used to the sight of armed police patrolling the streets when Mr Blair is at his constituency home, while Sedgefield itself is sealed off every Shrove Tuesday for the annual ball game.

But gun-toting American presidential bodyguards cordoning the area off is a different ball game.

Paul Smith, 34, from Fishburn, said: "It seems pointless bringing George Bush here. He can talk to the Prime Minister in London, can't he?"

Trimdon resident Neil Robinson, 24, added that the massive security operation was "over the top".

Black Stallions deliver a real kick

Horses are pretty commonplace on fields throughout County Durham, but the Black Stallions that arrived yesterday had locals in a spin.

Helicopter Combat Support Squadron (HC-4) are known as the Black Stallions and have served in some of the world's hottest war zones, including the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

They also provide support for presidential visits and were seen in Europe when Bill Clinton visited Northern Ireland, Paris, and the historic visit to Israel and Palestine in December 1998.

Created in 1960, the unit supported non-naval ships in the Atlantic before being re-assigned to anti-submarine warfare.

In the early 1980s, they began using the Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter, the US Navy commissioned its first, and only dedicated CH-53E squadron in 1983 - creating the present-day Black Stallions.

They squadron quickly established themselves as the prime movers of so-called air-delivered cargo.

Details of visit

Full details of George W Bush's four-day visit to the UK are as follows:

TONIGHT: Arrives in UK, to be met by the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

TOMORROW: A ceremonial welcome at the Palace followed by meetings with opposition leaders Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy. Mr Bush will then make a speech on the transatlantic alliance before meeting British families who lost loved ones on September 11. The day will conclude with a State Banquet at Buckingham Palace.

THURSDAY: Mr Bush will visit the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, in Westminster Abbey, and meet families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. After talks with Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street, the two leaders will stage a joint press conference before a working lunch prepared by celebrity chef Nigella Lawson. Afterwards the two leaders will have round table discussions with African representatives on HIV/Aids.

FRIDAY: After the Queen bids the President an official farewell, he will fly to Sedgefield for lunch with Mr Blair and some of his constituents. The President and the First Lady return will then to Washington.