Gatekeepers: How councils are controlling access to the public square
Regulation of the public square Until 10 years ago, most towns or city centres would have had an area where residents could put up a street stall. There were no fees and the stall-holders didn’t have to ask for permission: so long as their stall wasn’t causing an obstruction or a nuisance, it would be allowed to remain. These street stalls included Marxists, animal rights groups, p ...

Portsmouth v Southampton – Another ‘bubble’ football match

09-02-201203-09-2015

A follow up post from Manifesto Club member, Peter Lloyd, on the phenomenon of ‘bubble football matches’ (where away fans are banned from travelling to a match under their own steam, and must instead take approved coaches at defined pickup places and times)… If you are a Portsmouth Football Club supporter you will probably be aware that you will only be able to see your team play on 7th April at local rivals Southampton if you travel by designated coach from a designated pick up point at a designated time to a designated drop off point. That’s because the fixture is a…

Political leafleteers asked for leafleting licences in London

09-02-201203-09-2015

This email came from a political leafleteer, who is increasingly being stopped and asked for a licence. Yet the boroughs concerned have not, so far as we know, enacted a leafleting licence system. The context is growing powers for London councils and PSCOs, to be granted by the London Local Authorities Act. A worrying case, which we will investigate… ‘I’ve leafleted for several years (from a stall) without ever contacting the authorities – under the auspices of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act (CNEA) 2005 (*) – in Islington and Camden (and Westminster). I’ve not had any bother from the police, and…

Reports • Vetting

Vetting Tree Surgeons – CRB checks and local authorities

07-02-201227-07-2015

In June 2010 home secretary Theresa May called for CRB checks to be ‘scaled back to common sense levels’. Yet a Manifesto Club report reveals that councils are wasting millions on unnecessary CRB checks – at a time of cutbacks in frontline…

Blog • Leafleting bans

Brighton and Hove council responds to Manifesto Club petition against leafleting bans

30-01-201203-09-2015

Here is Brighton and Hove council’s woeful response to our Petition Against the Brighton leafleting ban. The requirement that people pay the council before leafleting, apparently, is not a ban but ‘allows flyering in a controlled way’. At the same time – the crackdown on leafleteers is continuing, with at least 4 people given on the spot fines at the weekend for the crime of ‘unlicensed leafleting’. Message to Brighton and Hove council: this debate is to be continued… ‘Thank you for your petition, which was presented to Full Council on 15 December 2011 and which I formally note here. Issuing leaflets…

Blog • Vetting

How unnecessary safeguarding rules sap resources and good will

25-01-201203-09-2015

I just received this email from a trustee of a charity – who wishes to remain anonymous – about the corrosive effect ‘safeguarding’ rules are having on the work of his organisation. Unnecessary proceedures poison the work of the organisation and can absorb scarce resources… “The vetting and barring regime continues to have detrimental effects on the operation of charities. As a trustee I, and others, am faced with re-assuring our staff, officers, and volunteers that the actions they are taking are reasonable in the light of ever increasing fears of the consequences if something goes wrong, especially when volunteers are visiting…

Blog • Vetting

The day your CRB check expires – do you become an instant risk?

20-01-201203-09-2015

I just received this from a university tutor, a case that ‘shows up the absurdity of the CRB system’. ‘Student out on placement, all going ok, manager finds out CRB check due to expire soon. If not resolved student’s placement will terminate then despite all being happy with her performance to date. So on one day she is fine to be out alone with ‘vulnerable’ people, the next day she is deemed so risky that she cannot even enter the workplace! What nonsense.’ Well said. It is strange how the day somebody’s CRB check expires, all hell breaks loose and everybody panics…

Blog • Freedom hotline

Liverpool art gallery gets ‘noise abatement notice’

20-01-201203-09-2015

An art gallery in Liverpool has been served with a ‘noise abatement notice’, prohibiting it from holding live music events. Assuming the music wasn’t that loud – this is yet another sign of the growing regulation of live music. Music is often now classified as ‘noise pollution’, and many live music events have to measure sound levels outside. Of course – not all music is to everyone’s taste, but this uniform definition of music as ‘noise’ is part of the growing official view that sees all social life as messy pollution. It’s a view that comes from the EU too – with…

Blog • Leafleting bans

Islington council warns people not to attach notices to trees – in a notice attached to a tree

20-01-201203-09-2015

Islington council warns people not to attach notices to trees – in a notice attached to a tree. This was was clearly a mistake, the actions of a junior worker without a huge amount of common sense. Yet the incident represents a real trend – which is while community posters are being cracked down on, council posters in public space are growing apace. So while you may be threatened with an on-the-spot fine for putting up a lost cat poster, councils are hanging more and more notices off lampposts, on bins and electricity boxes – urging you to give up smoking, drink…

Homepage

Pavement Injustice – Campaign Against On-the-Spot Fines

18-01-201204-09-2015

Over the past 10 years, public spaces have become increasingly policed by unaccountable officials bearing open-ended powers. On-the-spot fines mean that police and other officials can punish people for a series of offences ‘on-the-spot’, without legal checks and balances. Criminal offences that…

On-the-spot fines • Reports

Pavement Injustice: The Rise of On-the-Spot fines

18-01-201204-09-2015

On-the-spot fines have become the ‘penalty of choice’ for public authorities including the police, local authorities and schools. Almost unknown a decade ago, these £75 or £80 fines are now issued for a whole range of incidents, some as serious as theft…

Blog • Photo bans

Councils charge for public photography

11-01-201203-09-2015

Somebody just emailed me this – Birmingham council is charging people to take personal wedding photographs in public parks. “You are welcome to use our parks or green open spaces as backdrops for your wedding photographs and/or film recordings of your Wedding day for personal use only, with prior permission from us. Use service specific Parks form to make your request providing dates, times and the name of the site where you want to take your photographs. There is a charge of £50 for commercial photographs and £25 for non-commercial photographs.” [http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/usingparks] This is very much a sign of the times –…

Free movement - visiting artists

Keeping talented artists out of the UK

03-01-201227-07-2015

Post by Manick Govinda, head of the Manifesto Club visiting artists campaign… The myopic immigration cap is still having a damaging effect on the UK’s cultural life, not to mention the economy, people’s personal and social lives. The UK Border Agency’s piecemeal offer to save the UK from cultural and intellectual isolation was to introduce 1,000 visas to award non-European Union nationals with exceptional talent in the arts, sciences and humanities who wish to stay in the UK for 3-5 years. http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/working/tier1/exceptional-talent/ Professional bodies would assess and endorse applications to this route and in the case of the arts, Arts Council England…