Brighton’s wide-ranging PSPO will further extend the powers of this busybody council to stifle city life.

The planned order will ban ‘occupying any vehicle, caravan, tent or other structure’. This will prohibit caravans or camper vans from stopping for a night by the seafront. It will also be used to criminalise the large and long-established traveller communities in the city. Finally, it will prevent homeless people from putting up a tent to protect themselves on a cold night.

The order would also prohibit ‘lighting or maintaining any fire’. This means that anyone using a portable barbecue on the beach must allow this to be extinguished by council officers.

As an important petition against the order states that the PSPO ‘would not only impact the most vulnerable people in Brighton and Hove, including rough sleepers, but also the general public wishing to engage with public spaces in a positive way in a community spirit.’ (Sign the petition here.)

This PSPO comes after past council restrictions on leafleting, public drinking, and many other measures which are apparently trying to squeeze all life out of this boisterous town. Brighton, resist!