On-the-spot fines

Letter to Welwyn Hatfield Council re. corrupt ‘fly tipping’ penalties

Welwyn Hatfield Council’s private enforcement contract has led to a number of unfair penalties, including a man fined £500 for ‘fly tipping’ when an envelope blew out of his bin. This is an extract from the letter we sent to the council’s executive member for the environment. I’m writing to express my extreme concerns about cases related to your employment of District Enforcement. As I’m sure you will be aware, these include a man fined for ‘fly tipping’ when an envelope blew out of his bin, and people fined when their envelopes miraculously ended up on the floor of other communal bin…

Policy response

Manifesto Club response to Respect Orders (Crime and Policing Bill)

‘Respect Orders’ have been trailed by the Labour Party for over two years, as a way of getting ‘tough’ on ‘hooligans’ and tackling ‘the virus that is anti-social behaviour’. These powers have finally been published in the Crime and Policing Bill. The Manifesto Club finds that Respect Orders replicate the defects and injustices of the current Civil Injunction, and will increase these injustices. Our response is below. Respect Orders are almost identical to the current Civil Injunction power. Like Civil Injunctions, Respect Orders can be issued on application by various state bodies to the High Court or county court, and can impose…

Thinkpieces

Everyday freedom: a precious legacy

Manifesto Club Thinkpieces put our campaigning in broader perspective, exploring the underlying dynamics behind the state regulation of public spaces and informal life. This Thinkpiece by Dolan Cummings explores the historical and political background to our defence of everyday freedom. The idea that ‘Britain is a free country’ is so taken for granted that it’s more likely to elicit a roll of the eyes than a swell of pride. It’s a cliché associated with ‘Whig history’ and Cold War triumphalism. It might even be considered bad manners to imply our way of life is better than any other. And yet, would we…

Thinkpieces

The hyperregulation of everyday life

Manifesto Club Thinkpieces put our campaigning in broader perspective, exploring the underlying dynamics behind the state regulation of public spaces and informal life. This Thinkpiece by Manifesto Club director Josie Appleton explores the growing hyperregulation of everyday life. There should be large parts of life – in the streets, in our homes, and in informal life – where people organise things among themselves, and set their own rules, and the state intervenes only in the cases of violations or crimes. Over the past 20 years, state regulation has spread into everyday life, meaning that we increasingly conduct ourselves according to official codes…

Dispersal powers • Public space

Doncaster council’s draconian dispersal form

This is the form that Doncaster Council ‘city centre engagement officers’ use to bar people from the city centre. It shows that the pettiest council officers are being given absolute powers to order people around. The officer can ban someone if the officer thinks that the person ‘is likely to cause annoyance’ to any other person. The form allows the officer to specify when the person must leave the area (immediately/in 15 mins/30 mins/1 hour) The officer must state the ‘anti-social behaviour giving rise to the dispersal’ (this is the only slight requirement of evidence, but given the broad nature of the…

Football Fans Not Criminals

Football supporters are an easy target for the censors

(Guest post by Peter Lloyd) The Manifesto Club was instrumental in highlighting the discriminatory behaviour of the police towards football fans (see the reports here), especially ‘bubble matches‘ that led to the kettling of supporters and restrictions to travel and assembly on match days. Mercifully, and partly because of the Manifesto Club campaign, the practice of bubble matches has almost entirely ended. Now we see something more insidious, and covert, in a case highlighted and taken up by Toby Young at the Free Speech Union. A Newcastle United member and season ticket holder Linzi Smith wrote three moderately worded tweets, in which…

CPN case studies

Road safety campaigner banned from filming in Ealing

A road safety campaigner was issued with a Community Protection Notice banning him from filming in Ealing, as well as from posting pictures of anyone without their written consent. This case shows how those in positions of authority – in this case, a councillor – are able to use the CPN system in order to protect their own reputations or seek their own ends. It also shows how, once someone has received a CPN, they become ‘fair game’ for harassment by others, and unable to receive a normal level of public protection. His CPN appeal will be held in February. This is…

On-the-spot fines • Policy response

Now byelaws will become ‘busybody’ powers too

The English Devolution White Paper proposes to allow local councils to bring through byelaws without first seeking consent from the Secretary of State. It also proposes to allow councils to punish byelaw infractions by on-the-spot fine. The Manifesto Club response is as follows: “There are important checks that currently prevent unreasonable or overly restrictive byelaws. The requirement that the byelaws be affirmed by central government means that the relevant government department can check that they are ‘proportionate and reasonable‘, as required by the legislation. Government also supplies template byelaws, which are time-tested and fit with these specifications. A Home Office Circular from…