Southampton Demonstrations – Key individual networks (KINS) update: Highfield House Hotel and Weekend Roundup from Inspector J Maidment, Southampton North Neighbourhood Policing Team – 15 September 2025

“Dear KINS,

You may have seen or read some of the news stories that indicate the weekend in Southampton went with ‘No Major Disruption’.

As a round up please find the following information:

Friday evening saw approximately 30 counter protestors attend Highfield Lane alongside a handful of protestors.

Saturday there was no presence outside the hotel despite some information that we expected to see a turn out in solidarity with the London rally that occurred.  I am sure you have all seen the footage of the 100,000-150,000 people in attendance in London with some shocking scenes that included violence towards officers. This was a difficult landscape to navigate, but the Metropolitan Police did a great job with the help of forces across the Country to police it.

Sunday, the football passed without too much issue, thanks to the superb operation in place to segregate the Soton/Pompey fans on entry and exit.  Only 2x arrests were made.

There was no footprint at Highfield Lane.

An update was issued from Assistant Chief Constable Tony Rowlinson in respect of the policing operation over the weekend where he said the following:

‘I would like to thank both football clubs and their fans for supporting our policing operation, which was in place to help ensure the football was the focus of the day’ with patrols continuously carried out in and around the stadium and further afield in the city centre.

Given the anticipated weekend activities, the hotel, as a precaution, extended their fencing from Friday to Monday to include the front car park and taped off the trees within the grassed area.  This will likely be included in future protests and will mean that protestors, Ceno staff and customers will not have access to the front car park when it is erected.  I understand this will only be in place when protests are expected, but should they wish to extend this indefinitely then they would be entitled to do so.

My team and I have already visited the site and discussed this with the hotel and they are within their rights to close any access to their own land whenever they see fit.  Any dispute into this can be raised as a civil matter through the courts.

Ceno have been engaged and are understandably disappointed as this does affect their customer parking, however, they have been urged to seek legal advice should they believe that access is an entitlement of their contract.

We will continue to police the protests on the roadside and welcome any prevention methods the hotel choose to put in place to safeguard their residents and property as we would for anyone within the local community in their homes following the report of crime.

We anticipate ongoing protests on Friday evenings outside the hotel and will continue to provide a policing presence and regular updates to our Key Individual Networks and Councillors.

As always, if you, or the local community, have any information or concerns, please contact us via:

• Online reporting
• 101 (non-emergency)
• 999 (emergency only)

Contact your local policing team | Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary

Kind regards,

Jeanette

Inspector 24389 Maidment

Southampton NPT Inspector (Portswood & Bitterne North)”