Controversial plans by the Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission (AIM) to hold a children’s summer camp in Hertfordshire were back in the political spotlight this week, as councillors were updated on the Prevent programme.

Camp Wilayah – aimed at children aged between nine and 14 – had been scheduled to be held at the Scouts’ Phasels Wood Activity Centre, near Kings Langley, in August 2025.

But, with just days to go, the event was cancelled by the Scouts, citing increased public attention around the booking and concerns about “potential third-party disruption”.

In the run-up to the planned event, Hertfordshire branches of Reform UK had raised their own concerns, arguing that Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission (AIM) had “clear and troubling ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Regime”.

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And at the latest meeting of the county council’s public health and community safety cabinet panel, Reform Cllr David Herring questioned the role taken by Prevent, as councillors were updated on the work of the Prevent programme. He suggested that councillors had received around 300 public emails on the matter.

And yet he suggested that, “Prevent seemed to be very lacking in engaging in that. The only reason that didn’t go ahead, as far as we can establish, is because the Scout movement decided it probably wasn’t a good idea, given the public perception, to go ahead with that,” he said.

“And they cancelled it. There was no intervention by Prevent – as far as we can tell.”

But, in response, the county council’s director of regulatory services and community safety, Andrew Butler, said it had been treated “extremely seriously”. And he highlighted a number of meetings that had involved statutory partners and other agencies.

“I’m very limited in what I can say, in what is obviously a public meeting,” said Mr Butler. “What I can say, and to reassure you, is that all local statutory partners treated that extremely seriously. We did come together as a multi-agency group on a number of occasions.”

Mr Butler told the meeting that he could not share the details of those conversations, nor the outcome. But he stressed that they had treated it “extremely seriously”.

He indicated that the county council executive directors, Prevent, counter terrorism policing, the Home Office, and local partners had “very much made that a priority to review the best approach”.

And he signalled that the council would be looking to see if there were any future plans for the event to take place in the county. “. . . as has been in the public domain, this is an event that’s run for many years,” he said.

“So of course, we will be keeping an eye to see whether this is an event that might look to take place in the future. But probably beyond that, I am quite limited in what I can share in a public meeting.”

Mr Butler also clarified that it had been the local Scouting organisation that had cancelled the event on safety grounds, and not the national Scout Association.

And acknowledging the volume of emails received by councillors, he said: “Interestingly, a lot of which actually came from abroad, rather than from Hertfordshire residents raising concerns.”

During the meeting, members of the cabinet panel were updated more generally on Prevent’s work in the county.

The Prevent programme aims to tackle the ideological causes of terrorism, intervene early to support people susceptible to radicalisation and to enable those people who have already engaged in terrorism to disengage and rehabilitate.

Councillors heard that referrals in Hertfordshire come from a range of partners, with the highest number coming from the education sector, followed by local policing.

And they were told that over the past 12 months, ideologies included Islamist, extreme right-wing, Incel and violence-fixated individuals.

The Prevent update was presented to a meeting of the county council’s public health and community safety cabinet panel on Thursday. The webcast of the meeting can be viewed at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk