Cheshire West Council are proposing a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO), to cover the town centre and Boughton areas of Chester, which will:
- make sleeping, spreading a sleeping bag and even lying down, in a public space a criminal offence
- regulate busking
- ban the feeding of birds
- ban begging, even silently
- ban all "intoxicating substances" - which are not defined
- criminalise urination in any public space - even for children
- give Council officials the power to impose £100 spot fines on anyone they consider to have broken these rules - without a trial and without a right of appeal.
- make sleeping, spreading a sleeping bag and even lying down, in a public space a criminal offence
- regulate busking
- ban the feeding of birds
- ban begging, even silently
- ban all "intoxicating substances" - which are not defined
- criminalise urination in any public space - even for children
- give Council officials the power to impose £100 spot fines on anyone they consider to have broken these rules - without a trial and without a right of appeal.
This is at a time when homelessness is expected to increase massively as a result of government welfare cuts - young people under 21, for instance, are to be denied all Housing Benefit - and when council provision for homelessness is completely inadequate.The council want to sweep the problems caused by the housing crisis under the carpet where they cannot be seen. And in doing so they are attacking everyone's freedoms.
