LONDON, Sept 14 (AFP) - Britain ruled out bunker-like security for Buckingham Palace as a pair of activists who penetrated the official residence of Queen Elizabeth II dressed as Batman and Robin are freed on police bail.
Jason Hatch, 32, and Dave Pyke, 48, both members of Fathers 4 Justice, were released and told to return to a central London police station in December, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said.
Hatch was arrested Monday on suspicion of criminal damage after spending five hours on a ledge on the front side of Buckingham Palace, the queen`s official residence.
Decked out as the caped crusader of comic book fame, Hatch won priceless front-page press coverage for his group`s campaign to ensure more access for divorced and separated fathers to their children.
Pyke, who played the role of Robin, was arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting Hatch by helping him use a ladder to hop over a street-side barrier into the palace grounds.
Queen Elizabeth was at her Balmoral country estate in Scotland, but the stunt renewed concerns about royal security after a string of previous breaches, and at a time when Britain is keeping a constant lookout for potential terrorist strikes.
Home Secretary David Blunkett said that while he was satisfied with new technology and procedures put into place after previous security breaches, he was not happy that they had failed to work "perfectly".
But in a BBC radio interview, he appeared to rule out any dramatic new security measures, such as concrete barriers or guard dogs, around Buckingham Palace -- one of London`s top tourist draws -- or other landmarks.
"I am not satisfied that we got it right," said Blunkett, who as the cabinet minister responsible for law enforcement is the politician directly responsible for protecting the royal family.
"However, I don`t think there is a point in having palaces, in having monuments, in inviting tourists across the world if we`re so afraid of terrorists that we won`t actually let them get anywhere near them or see them."
"So there`s a happy balance, a proportionality here and we`re trying to develop it," he said.
Later Tuesday, at a police chiefs` conference, Blunkett said there would be no snap resignations of officials in charge of protecting the royal family.
"I don`t think it helps us deal with the real terrorist threat and the very substantial dangers that face this country to over-exaggerate the risk from yesterday," he said.
With the royal family off for the summer, Buckingham Palace was open for public tours of its elegant rooms used for state receptions, and the daily ceremonial Changing of the Guard went ahead Tuesday like clockwork.
Monday`s stunt was the third serious breach of royal security in just over a year.
In June 2003 stand-up comic Aaron Barschak gate-crashed a costume party at Windsor Palace, west of London, where the entire royal family was celebrating Prince William`s 21st birthday.
Later in the year, an undercover reporter for the Daily Mirror newspaper got a job as a royal footman, even taking snapshots of her majesty`s breakfast table, shortly before US President George W. Bush came to stay at the palace.
Security and hiring policies were reviewed after both incidents.