The Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act includes a swathe of unprecedentedly open-ended powers, which significantly undermine rights in public spaces.
The Manifesto Club is focusing on ‘Public Spaces Protection Orders’ (PSPOs), which give local authorities the power to ban any activity they judge to have a ‘detrimental effect’ on the ‘quality of life’ of a locality.
We also have grave concerns about many of the other powers – including dispersal orders and Community Protection Notices – which have the potential to be used against buskers, protesters or anybody the police or council officials don’t like the look of.
REPORTS AND GUIDES:
- How are councils using the ASB Act? – guide to councils’ uses of Public Spaces Protection Order powers;
- Guide to the ASB Act – summary of the main powers contained in the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act;
- Briefing document – Buskers and homeless under threat from new ASB powers – briefing document reporting how councils plan to use Public Spaces Protection Order powers;
- Dispersal powers – the crime of being found in a public place – how dispersal powers have been used by police forces since 20 October.
BLOG POSTS:
See the Freedom Hotline blog for the latest campaign updates and news.
TAKE ACTION!
- If your council planning a PSPO or over-using other ASB powers, do email us: we can publicise the case and help challenge the order.
- Post comments or cases on Twitter (#asbact or @manifestoclub) or on the Manifesto Club Facebook page;
- If the restriction relates to political protest, you can additionally report to Occupy London legal adviser Matthew Varham.
PRESS AND MEDIA:
The ASB Act: all power to the state, Josie Appleton, spiked, 19 November
Josie Appleton discussed public spaces protection orders on BBC Radio Lincolnshire, 29 October
Grimsby introduces rules to control street drinking, BBC News, 29 October
Josie Appleton discussed public spaces protection orders on BBC TV News (north east), 29 October
Blackpool Council considers ‘mankini’ outfit ban, BBC News, 21 October
Do what your council says – or pay £100 fine, Channel 4 News, 20 October
Stag and hen weekends face clampdown after officials rule to ban ‘inappropriate dress’… in BLACKPOOL, Daily Mail, 20 October
Stags left in tight spot as Blackpool plans to ban mankinis, Independent, 20 October
Mankini-free zone: Blackpool clamps down on stag and hen misbehaviour, Metro, 20 October
Cambridge gets new weapon in fight against antisocial behaviour – but fears PSPOs create “grey areas”, Cambridge News, 8 October
Parents could be banned from parking outside Gloucestershire schools, Gloucester Citizen, 10 September
An end to boozy parties?, The Blackpool Gazette, 10 September
Poll: Should councils be able to punish parents for parking outside schools, Express and Star, 6 September
The bossy station announcer I’d like to throttle and the madness of letting jobsworths hand out fines, Tom Utley, Daily Mail, 5 September
New powers mean parents could be fined £100 for parking near schools, Daily Mirror, 4 September
Now drivers face £100 fine if they park too near to a school, Daily Mail, 4 September
Parents could be banned from parking near their children’s school, claims think tank, Bristol Post, 4 September