Truth about Kate and William’s forever home’s six-mile exclusion zone. No it’s nothing to do with keeping out riff raff, says royal expert DAI DAVIES… the reality is far more sinister
The six-mile security perimeter around Forest Lodge, the new home of the Prince of Wales and his family, was not imposed on a whim.
As the Mail reported yesterday on Sunday, the exclusion zone of at least 150 acres is the result of serious concerns for the safety of William, Kate and their children. Established under Section 128 of the Serious Organized Crime and Police Act 2005.
Any claim that the family’s need for privacy played a significant role in the decision is, in my view, a ridiculously broad goal. It’s understandable that sightseers, dog walkers and some neighbors are upset that land in Windsor Great Park, which was previously open to everyone, is now fenced off. But roaming rights are not more important than the Royal Family’s need to be protected from terrorists and others who wish to harm them.
It’s a matter of priorities. And the safety of the heir to the throne is the highest priority imaginable.
When I became head of Scotland Yard’s Royal Protection Command in 1994, I established a policy that seemed to me to be pure common sense: royals in the direct line of succession were potentially at the highest risk and therefore needed the closest protection.
Not only is William the new heir to the throne, but his three children are his immediate heirs. The entire country has a duty to keep them safe, and this inevitably means sacrifice and inconvenience at times; for example, loss of dog walking privileges.
Forest Lodge in Windsor Great Park, new home of the Prince of Wales and his family
The Prince and Princess Charlotte of Wales with George and Louis at a carol service at Westminster Abbey earlier this month
Good security is like an onion. It consists of many layers that form around the nucleus. By creating an exclusion zone around William’s family home, police hope to maximize the time available to respond to any potential threat.
More distance means more time. And time is a lifesaver.
We don’t know what security measures are in place at Forest Lodge, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t include rooms designed to be impervious to outside attack. Such safe rooms are only useful if the security team has enough time to get everyone in.
Royal risk assessments are constantly updated. One current factor may be William’s recent appointment as boss of the Special Air Service Regiment. Many Northern Irish republicans hate the SAS, and the IRA’s splinter factions are seen as an ongoing security threat to anyone with links to special forces.
Additional fencing was erected at Cranborne Gate in Windsor Great Park before the Welsh moved into Forest Lodge to help provide an exclusion zone of at least 150 acres
Dai Davies, former head of the Royal Guard
This danger was exacerbated by the Labor government’s failure to protect SAS veterans from being pursued by the courts over republican grievances dating back 50 years to the Troubles.
The Royal Family has always been a target of dissidents and hostile activists. Forest Lodge was founded in the 1770s by Henry III, who survived nine known attempts on his life, including by French and American dissidents who sought to overthrow the British throne. It was built during George’s reign.
But today the royal family faces credible threats from more sides than ever before in history. Hostile governments and criminal organizations around the world may be plotting harm, and it is impossible to know how many they employ in the UK.
Britain’s borders are now so porous that police have no idea who is here among the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. This is not a political issue; This is a matter of basic security.
Allied soldiers have recently been fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Africa, and now immigrants seeking asylum from all those places and many more are here in untold numbers. This is the ultimate security nightmare for police protecting extremely vulnerable people.
The terrorist threat is constant and getting worse. Anyone who looks at the cordon at Windsor Great Park and thinks it is a matter of public rights of way fails to fully understand today’s world.
Former Chief Inspector Dai Davies is the former head of the Royal Guard
