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The east London borough hosting this week's G20 summit has promised it intends sending any clear-up bills to the Foreign Office. The G20 of world leaders takes place on 2 April at the Excel exhibition centre, which falls within the boundaries of Newham LBC. A council spokesman told The MJ this week: ‘We will be calculating our spending and then sending the bill to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.' The council's chief executive, Joe Duckworth, has already warned that the council does not expect its residents to lose out because of the event. He said: ‘We expect the police to robustly deal with any criminal or anti- social behaviour, taking appropriate and proportionate action as a matter of urgency. We have also asked for assurances that local policing elsewhere in the borough will not be affected.' He added: ‘Should there be any protest activity we are determined that neither residents nor the council have to pick up the tab for clearing up.' The council's website has been running a section on the G20 preparations which have affected some staff working in offices near the site where Newham's new town hall recently opened. The FCO said the total costs of the summit would be around £20M. The G20 also coincided with a row between Westminster City Council and the Department for Transport which saw the shutdown of the borough's 100 wireless parking enforcement CCT cameras at midnight on 31 March across central London. The DfT said the cameras, which cost £15m to install in 2006, did not meet picture quality, and were unlawful. But the council said the argument was over less than 1% of a pixel, and that the cameras could have been used for monitoring any disorder arising.

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WHITEHALL

Foreign Office 'must pay' G20 clear-up bill

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