Coventry Council is planning a new PSPO that will ban independent political campaigning in the city centre. If it goes ahead, only those who have been formally approved by the council will be able to use amplification or put up a small campaigning stall. This replicates the order in Leicester, which has seen dozens of religious groups given warnings and a pensioner fined for running a campaign against council cuts. These orders mean that the council gets to decide which causes can be heard or seen in the city – which is a violation of free speech rights and democracy. (See our…

Greenwich Council is currently consulting on an extension to its PSPO – an order that bans a swathe of activities, including drinking in public, foul language, persistent begging, ‘anti-social loitering’ within 10m of a cash machine, ‘anti-social use of vehicles’ (including bikes), anti-social behaviour, and (perhaps most absurdly) ‘comments made of a sexual or gender-based nature’. The key thing is that most of these offences are in the eye of the beholder – ie, the official has the power to judge whether or not an offence has been committed. Who is to say when loitering, drinking or cycling is ‘anti-social’, and when…

We are working with political campaigners in Leicester, who are opposing the council’s ban on political campaigning (a new law prohibits displaying banners or flags, amplification, and setting up political stalls). Here is news from campaigners about their recent protest, when they set up campaign tables in defiance of the ban. We have written to the council, asking them to remove this restrictive and undemocratic law. Six different campaigning groups defied Leicester City Council’s ban on campaign tables and set up close to each other in the city centre on 7 February. While the event was happening City Wardens made no attempt…

Leicester City Council has a draconian Public Spaces Protection Order, which bans political groups from putting up banners or holding campaigning stalls in the city centre. So far, dozens of religious groups have been given warnings, and at least one political campaigner was fined when she refused to take down her ‘unauthorised’ campaigning table. (She has refused to pay the fine and is challenging the council to prosecute her). In theory, people can apply for permission from the council to hold a political stall, use amplification, or display a flag or banner. Leicester activist Michael Barker recently applied to hold a stall…