An Olympic victory for Strathclyde Police after cash row

OLYMPIC organisers have backed down after trying to make Scotland pick up the entire policing bill for Games events in Strathclyde.

The Home Office had wanted Strathclyde Police and the Scottish Government to pay all costs surrounding men's and women's football matches at Hampden Park - despite offering to pay part of those faced by English and Welsh forces.

However, after protracted negotiations between Scottish and Westminster officials, it has agreed to treat all UK forces equally.

Exactly what contribution the Home Office will make is still being negotiated but Westminster will definitely not contribute to costs of policing the torch relay or of providing protection for athletes whose training camps are in Scotland - such as Namibia and Zambia - but who are competing in events elsewhere.

Chief Superintendent Jim McKecknie said: "The Home Office didn't want to pay for any of it.

"The costs were going to fall to the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government said, 'No, these games are being funded by the Home Office'."

Assistant Chief Constable Fiona Taylor added: "There was a protracted period of debate. But now we're being treated the same as all of the English police forces. They've adopted a position in our favour, which was a real step forward for us.

"But the torch is outside the funding envelope."

The torch relay will visit Glasgow, Inverness, Orkney, Shetland, the Isle of Lewis, Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh, between 8 and 13 June.

Evening celebrations will be held in Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh when the torch arrives at each location, with more than 50,000 expected to attend those in Glasgow alone.

The cost of policing all that will fall to the Scottish Government and Scottish forces.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Scottish ministers are proud that Hampden Park will host some of the matches in the Olympic football programme and share the hopes of the Games organisers for a successful event.

"The Scottish Government has never given any commitment to meet the cost of policing the Olympic football matches to be held in Glasgow in 2012.

"After a period of negotiation, the Home Office has agreed to contribute towards those costs.

"We are pleased a satisfactory solution has been found and believe that all costs of the 2012 Olympics should be drawn from the extremely generous budget that the UK government has set aside for that purpose."

A Scottish Government source added: "It's a very good illustration of, where we have a strong and reasonable case to make, common sense can prevail.

"We believe that's got wider implications, not least to the application of the Scotland Bill."It is not yet known how much it will cost to police the Olympics in Scotland - much will depend on which countries compete in Glasgow, which won't be decided until April 2012.

Last year, Strathclyde Chief Constable Stephen House said the cost would run into hundreds of thousands of pounds and it was "not appropriate" for Strathclyde to pay.

He added: "After all, it's the London Olympics and not the Hampden Olympics."