Young people’s activities in public spaces are being restricted by a series of new council laws. Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) – which give councils powers to ban activities which have a ‘detrimental effect’ on the ‘quality of life’ – are increasingly…
The Manifesto Club is supporting members of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, who have been prevented from handing out leaflets in Woking Town Centre. They were told that they must gain prior approval from the council, and submit the leaflets they wish to distribute. They were also told that they must get public liability insurance before distributing leaflets. Both of these requests are based on the council’s Public Realm Usage Policy. Both are also entirely unjustified, and have no legal basis. Members of the group wrote a letter to Woking News, outlining their position (see the letter here). We wrote a letter to…
New anti-social behaviour powers are criminalising people merely for being in a public space. From 20 October 2014, the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act gave police new ‘dispersal powers’ to bar individuals from public spaces if they think a person’s behaviour…
As things stand, it is likely that Oxford Council will tonight enact a PSPO (public spaces protection order), creating a series of new criminal offences in the city centre. The new offences include : A new crime of ‘non-compliant busking’. This means that a busker playing in the wrong spot or for longer than an hour would be committing a criminal offence: they could receive an £100 on-the-spot fine, or £1000 fine on conviction. It will be a crime to beg ‘on more than one occasion’ in the city centre. This means that homeless people in Oxford will be committing an offence if…
If this PSPO goes though it will be a crime to protest with megaphones in Birmingham city centre. It will also be a crime to play violin, acoustic guitar or flute with amplification. That is, the city centre – including the law courts, police station, and council house – will be an area within which amplification of all kinds is prohibited. The council says it has been ‘inundated’ with complaints about noise: I would like to know how many complaints they have received. What’s more likely is that such measures represent the official view that any spontaneous expressions of life in public…
Bassetlaw District Council has just created the following PSPO: ‘The new order prohibits shouting, swearing or acting in a manner as to cause annoyance, harassment, alarm or distress to any person- and also means that 16 year olds will not be permitted to gather in the vicinity in groups of three or more.’ This will make it a crime for an under 16 year old to gather in a group in the defined public space. This amounts to criminalising teenage sociability. Hillingdon Council has passed an order targeted at young people, in one area restricting activities including: ‘using skateboards, pedal cycles, roller…
Councils have brought in a series of PSPOs since our March briefing. Some of these orders target activities that are already crimes – such as urinating and defecating in public – which is likely to be an issue of being able to punish with spot-fines rather than court. Others include specific activities – remote control cars, skateboarding – regardless of whether these are causing a problem. And then there are new vague pseudo-crimes – ‘loitering…so as to cause ASB’: what does that mean? – or causing harrassment, alarm and distress. It is trouble enough when such vague terms are brought before the…
There are growing moves to ban smoking in outdoor areas, including playgrounds, parks, public squares, and outside buildings such as hospitals or schools. Some of these bans are led by councils, others by health authorities or private owners. Outdoor smoking bans are…
There are growing calls for boycotts of artistic endeavors – including performance art installations, visual artist exhibitions, performing arts groups, erotic movies, exhibitions and art biennials. The boycott, as a public declaration of not attending an ‘offensive’ exhibition, festival or film, has…
The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act went live on 20 October. This included ‘public spaces protection orders’, which allow councils to ban any activity which they judge to have a ‘detrimental effect’ on the ‘quality of life’ of an area. A…
The Manifesto Club Campaign Against Leafleting Bans has achieved significant protections for small groups and events, in new statutory guidance published today by Defra. In our report, Leafleting – A liberty lost? we showed how large numbers of city centres were now…
Cambridge City council has passed a PSPO banning the drinking of alcohol in public spaces. It’s remarkably unclear how the order will be applied, however. Council leaders and the police insist that it won’t be used against families having a nice picnic, and so on – that it will only be used in cases of anti-social behaviour. And yet, council leaders refused an amendment by the Lib Dems, which would have restricted alcohol confiscation to cases of anti-social behaviour. What is most likely is that the order will be applied against street drinkers, who may or may not be committing anti-social behaviour…