Case Studies

PSPO protests

by Mark Rowe

The human rights campaign group Liberty has welcomed Newport City Council’s decision to overhaul its plans for a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) that, according to the campaigners, would have constituted a major threat to civil liberties.

For more on PSPOs around the country, see the September, November and December 2015 print issues of Professional Security magazine.

Newport is not proceeding with proposals to place a blanket ban on rough sleeping and begging in the city centre. Liberty wrote to Council Leader Robert Bright in October warning that the proposed bans on rough sleeping and begging would interfere with Articles 8 and 10 of the Human Rights Act. Under the Act, the Council is bound not to behave in a way which would disproportionately affect those rights.

A PSPO gives police and council officers the power to issue on-the-spot penalties of up to £100 to those in breach. The provision on rough sleeping has now been removed from the draft Order, while that on begging has been watered down. Liberty’s letter also advised that the proposed blanket ban on free printed leaflet distribution amounted to a breach of the right to freedom of expression and may have also inhibited the right to protest.

The council abandoned the leaflet distribution provision later in October.

Rosie Brighouse, Legal Officer for Liberty, said: “Make no mistake, these concessions are a significant improvement and we are delighted the Council has seen sense. The amendments are testament to both the power of our Human Rights Act and community campaigning. It’s shocking that similar proposals to use PSPOs to criminalise the poorest in society continue to surface up and down the country. We hope to see more authorities follow Newport’s example and backtrack on their misguided plans.”

Newport sought to introduce the PSPO in time for the opening of the Friars Walk retail development in November 2015. Liberty adds that it has written to other councils – in Birmingham, Chester and Oxford – that sought orders against rough sleepers. Campaigners protested that the councils were punishing the homeless for being homeless. Likewise earlier this month Liberty wrote to Gravesend Council, which is proposing a PSPO to include a ban on lying down, sleeping rough and begging in the Kentish town centre. Liberty complain that this will target highly vulnerable – and likely destitute – members of society with financial penalties they cannot afford.

About the orders

PSPOs date from last year’s Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, the then Coalition’s updating of the Labour Government’s ASBOs (Anti-Social Behavioural Orders) of the 2000s. Typically they are against such anti-social behaviour as drunkenness in public places.

Photo by Mark Rowe: Queen’s Road, Brighton, weekday morning.

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