LAST October I asked Cheshire Constabulary the cost of policing the Creamfields festival since I wanted to understand whether any charge was falling on the public purse.

The first response I was given by the constabulary was clearly wrong and I queried it. They admitted it was inaccurate and sent me a revised answer. That too didn’t look right so I queried it again and once more the constabulary admitted it was inaccurate.

The latest figures I have been given show that Creamfields was charged £562,053 for 2016, and £342,515 for 2017.

These cover salaries, equipment and other costs.

The 2017 figure is said to include 6,393 hours for police officers salaries costing in total £281,202 which has been charged to Creamfields. However when I use the fees and charges rates published in the constabulary’s handbook and multiply those hourly rates by the 6,393 hours the constabulary provided I arrive at a cost of £472,236 for officers alone.

That’s an apparent undercharge to Creamfields of nearly £200,000.

I was therefore intrigued to read in the Guardian last week the judge’s comment about drug dealers at the festival, where he said that there were 250 officers each day supervising the festival.

If we assume the judge’s figure of 250 officers is correct and they were working seven hours a day that’s a total of 7,000 hours over four days, more than the 6,393 hours I’ve been given. If these 7,000 hours are prorated by grade of officer as the 6,393 hours then that suggests a cost of £517,000 for police officers, £235,000 more than Creamfields have actually been charged.

At the moment the difference between the published charge rates and the actual charge made to Creamfields would suggest the public are bearing a significant part of the cost.

I had asked the constabulary and Crime Commissioner for further explanations.

RICHARD BUTTREY Stockton Heath