Following concerns and feedback from members about the stewarding at SUFC in early March we wrote to the club, the police and the local authority. Our letter pointed out that:

“A number of our members have raised this with us, particularly concerning one SIA steward who has been identified as wearing red epaulettes and displaying handcuffs on his yellow jacket.

A number of our members have expressed their concern that his approach to stewarding is one of robust confrontation rather than engaging with fans. Of course we accept that there will be rare occasions when a firm response will be needed, but this should be as a last resort when incidents warrant it. The approach taken exacerbates the interactions with some younger fans and leads to them “winding up” the steward by going near or onto the terrace wall. I have seen a young fan pushed off the wall with his fall only being broken by him falling onto another young fan.”

Fans also witnessed the use of handcuffs by a member of the events staff team at the Britcon stand end of the ground.

We met with SUFC, the local authority and the Police and expressed our concerns about what fans had witnessed. We suggested that more should be done by stewards and police to engage constructively with fans and that in particular the SIA event staff approach was not helping the stewarding at the ground.

As a consequence of our discussion with the Local Authority the Trust was invited to nominate two members of our board to attend the SAG in order to give a fan perspective on match day arrangements. The board nominated Chairman Tony Gosling and Secretary John Needham to take up the places.

The SAG is co-ordinated by the council is attended by representatives from North Lincolnshire Council, the emergency services, other relevant bodies and SUFC.

SAGs provide a forum for discussing and advising on public safety at matches. They aim to help organisers with the planning, and management of an event and to encourage cooperation and coordination between all relevant agencies. The local SAG meets every two months and considers arrangements at SUFC. Fan attendance at SAGs is quite unusual so we are pleased that our council has chosen to involve fans in this way.