Kettering Council has prosecuted 10 people for breaching its Public Spaces Protection Order. The order in question is incredibly wide-ranging, banning activities including: unauthorised charity collection, begging, under-18s out between 11pm-6am, loitering, distributing leaflets, skateboards, alcohol, and swearing.   The Council announced its 10 prosecutions with gung-ho glee,saying “The PSPO gives powers of enforcement to allow us to tackle issues that are particularly relevant to Kettering town centre. The CBOs (Criminal Behaviour Orders) issued will help prevent this behaviour with the threat of a prison sentence for reoffenders.” The 10 individuals were prosecuted either for public drinking or for begging, for which they…

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…

This is the Manifesto Club response to the draft Newport PSPO. 1. No person shall within the restricted area refuse to stop drinking alcohol or hand over any containers (sealed or unsealed) which are believed to contain alcohol, when required to do so by an authorised officer to prevent public nuisance or disorder. Manifesto Club response: The power of alcohol confiscation is an unnecessarily broad and open-ended power, which means that alcohol can be confiscated from people who are not actually doing anything wrong. When these powers have been introduced in other places, they have been used disproportionately to target homeless people…

(A guest post by members of Food not Bombs Southampton, on how the PSPO ban on begging is affecting the city’s homeless). It’s 8:30 pm and we walk along the High Street. The night is clear and noisy as Southampton University fresher students are grouping; dressed in fancy dress and odd clothing for the night out as they go to face the youth bars. University life is beginning for many and excitement is in the air. The cold night sky is full of stars and there is the feeling of an encroaching frost – definitely coat weather for most. We have come…

Two particularly objectionable PSPOs are currently out for consultation. Newcastle Council seeks to create a series of wide-ranging new crimes. There is a ban on ‘aggressive begging’ – a commonly used but questionable phrase, since begging is not a naturally aggressive act. When spelled out in practice in other PSPOs, ‘aggressive begging’ is defined as when members of the public feel pressured or obliged to give money, such as in cases as when the beggar is sitting near a cash machine. Yet the PSPO goes much further than this already problematic definition: it also prohibits anyone to ‘have in their possession any item for holding,…

Horsham Council has banned free running in its town centre, meaning that people could be fined or prosecuted for such activities as jumping over bollards or vaulting walls. The cabinet member for community and wellbeing said that free running counted among the ‘anti-social’ acts that were an ‘issue for the local community’. Yet free running (or parkour) is presumably being practiced by some members of the local community. It is a recognised sport and art form, coming with a high degree of self-discipline and a particular way of viewing the urban space. A Horsham 17-year-old free runner said that they had ‘utmost respect for…