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Blog • PSPOs

Oxford Council: don’t criminalise begging/busking tonight!

As things stand, it is likely that Oxford Council will tonight enact a PSPO (public spaces protection order), creating a series of new criminal offences in the city centre. The new offences include : A new crime of ‘non-compliant busking’. This means that a busker playing in the wrong spot or for longer than an hour would be committing a criminal offence: they could receive an £100 on-the-spot fine, or £1000 fine on conviction. It will be a crime to beg ‘on more than one occasion’ in the city centre. This means that homeless people in Oxford will be committing an offence if…

Blog • Free speech • PSPOs

Birmingham to ban microphones in the city centre

If this PSPO goes though it will be a crime to protest with megaphones in Birmingham city centre. It will also be a crime to play violin, acoustic guitar or flute with amplification. That is, the city centre – including the law courts, police station, and council house – will be an area within which amplification of all kinds is prohibited. The council says it has been ‘inundated’ with complaints about noise: I would like to know how many complaints they have received. What’s more likely is that such measures represent the official view that any spontaneous expressions of life in public…

Blog • PSPOs

Criminalising youth sociability in public spaces

Bassetlaw District Council has just created the following PSPO: ‘The new order prohibits shouting, swearing or acting in a manner as to cause annoyance, harassment, alarm or distress to any person- and also means that 16 year olds will not be permitted to gather in the vicinity in groups of three or more.’ This will make it a crime for an under 16 year old to gather in a group in the defined public space. This amounts to criminalising teenage sociability. Hillingdon Council has passed an order targeted at young people, in one area restricting activities including: ‘using skateboards, pedal cycles, roller…

Blog • Booze bans • PSPOs

Cambridge booze ban – barefaced duplicity

Cambridge City council has passed a PSPO banning the drinking of alcohol in public spaces. It’s remarkably unclear how the order will be applied, however. Council leaders and the police insist that it won’t be used against families having a nice picnic, and so on – that it will only be used in cases of anti-social behaviour. And yet, council leaders refused an amendment by the Lib Dems, which would have restricted alcohol confiscation to cases of anti-social behaviour. What is most likely is that the order will be applied against street drinkers, who may or may not be committing anti-social behaviour…

Blog • PSPOs

Oxford City Council to ban anything that makes people feel ‘uncomfortable’

This is the final week in a consultation by Oxford city council, proposing a ban on various ‘anti-social activities’ in the city centre (the council is using new ‘public spaces protection order’ powers, PSPOs, which allow them to ban any activity they judge to have a ‘detrimental effect’ on the ‘quality of life’). These banned activities include : sleeping in toilets, rough sleeping, public drinking, dogs off leads in the city centre, pigeon feeding, ‘non-compliant’ busking, and ‘persistent begging’. When the Manifesto Club debated the issue on BBC Radio Oxford on Sunday, Oxford councillor Dee Sinclair said that they were bringing in the…

Blog • Busking • PSPOs

Busker issued with ‘community protection notice’ banning him from busking

Thomas Mumby, a 28-year old musician in Retford, has been issued with a ‘community protection notice’ prohibiting him from busking in Retford town centre. A ‘community protection notice’ can be issued if a person’s behaviour is judged to have a ‘detrimental effect’ on the ‘quality of life’ of an area (the notice can be issued by council or police officers, and creates a criminal offence). Mr Munby is continuing to busk, however, as this is his livelihood. This means a real risk that he will be taken to court. See a video here of his encounter with the police ; there is…

Blog • Booze bans • PSPOs

Boston Council oversteps ASB powers

Boston Council has announced a ban on street drinking, with signs announcing that ‘drinking alcohol or carrying it in any open container in this area is PROHIBITED’. Yet these announcements misrepresent the powers provided in the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act. The powers to make ‘public spaces protection orders’ is extremely broad, but one of the few restrictions is a restriction on a complete ban on alcohol. The Statutory Guidance accompanying the Act states clearly: ‘It is not an offence to drink alcohol in a controlled drinking zone. However, it is an offence to fail to comply with a request to…

Blog • Booze bans • PSPOs

Lincoln Council bans ‘intoxicating substances’ in city centre

Lincoln city councillors have voted in favour of a ban on ‘intoxicating substances’. The policy will go before the council’s executive committee for final ratification on 19 January. The law is made under new powers contained in the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act, specifically the ‘public spaces protection order’ (PSPO) power, which allows local authorities to ban anything which has a ‘detrimental effect’ on the ‘quality of life’ of the locality. The law is intended to prohibit the consumption of so-called ‘legal highs’, but is drafted so broadly as to include all substances which affect the central nervous system, which could…

Blog • Vetting

Oz catches ‘Santa’s lap’ panic

An Australian child protection adviser has called for shopping centres to ‘update child protection policies’ so that children ‘stand beside Santa’ rather that sit on his knee. This sparked a national debate about the rights and wrongs of sitting on Santa’s knee (Is it wrong if the child asks to do it? Where should Santa put his hands? Which part of the knee?) What is striking is the similarities between British and Australian child protection cultures, with a shared concern about the dangers of interaction between children and this strange disguised man in dark spaces. This level of concern simply doesn’t exist…

Blog • PSPOs

New ASB powers of eviction: Our homes are no longer our own

A 22-year old has been evicted from her home in Plymouth, as police used the broad new powers of eviction contained within the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act. The Plymouth Herald reports enthusiastically that new ASB powers mean that somebody can be evicted from their home and asked to leave ‘within the hour’, if police ‘tell the court they reasonably believe that there is, or is likely soon to be, a public nuisance or there is disorder in the vicinity of the premises’. The old conditions for eviction were significantly stonger: the ‘police would have to prove that the property was…

Blog • On-the-spot fines

Another council calls in the litter police

Another council – Gravesham Borough Council, in Kent – will contract a private company for the issuing of litter fines. The Manifesto Club argues that the issuing of fines by private companies on commission can gravely distort the operations of justice and law enforcement (see our report The Corruption of Punishment). There are several salient points in Gravesham Borough Council’s report about the contract: – There have only been 9 litter fines issued by council and police officers in 2014. This is likely to go up to two or three thousand once the company is contracted. – These private officers being employed…

Blog • PSPOs

ASB powers used against motorist meet-ups

Colchester Council is planning a ‘public spaces protection order’ banning car enthusiasts from gathering in a retail park after 6pm. This comes after gatherings of hundreds of cars, organised by the East Essex Cruisers. Yet significantly, when police visited previous gatherings, they found that people were ‘not doing anything much’; they were looking at each other’s cars, some revving their engines or playing music on the car radio. The only offence was the sale of burgers from vans without a licence. Yet under the new law it will become a crime to enter Turner Rise retail park after 6pm, except for the…