‘IN KETTERING it is illegal to go out after 11 at night if you are under 18. In Hillingdon you cannot gather in groups of two or more unless you are waiting at a designated bus stop. There are hundreds of these new “crimes” across the country,’ civil rights campaigner Jose Appleton warned yesterday.
Appleton is the convener of civil liberties group Manifesto Club which is campaigning against the introduction of Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs). These are sweeping new powers given to councils by the Tory government to criminalise any behaviour they feel is ‘anti-social’.
PSPOs have been used to target homeless people, campaigners and charity workers and to criminalise youth who are just hanging out with their friends on the street. Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) passed by councils ban sleeping in doorways, with ‘offenders’ handed a £100 fixed penalty notice that can rise 10-fold in court to £1,000.
Appleton said: ‘In 50% of cases these laws have been passed by a single council officer. ‘You cannot have a single council officer inventing a law in a number of days. Hackney Council passed a law banning a number of different activities including rough sleeping, loitering and no one knew about it. The local paper called us up and said that they never heard about this, where has this come from?’
Human rights organisation Liberty said: ‘We have to campaign against Public Space Protection Orders. Begging and sleeping rough aren’t anti-social behaviour – they’re the result of poverty.
‘Councils should be helping the vulnerable, not slapping them with criminal records and unpayable fines. A range of measures have been proposed, including a ban on rough sleeping and “aggressive” and “persistent” begging – “persistent” being defined by the authority as begging “on more than one occasion”.
‘These proposals would restrict rights protected under the Human Rights Act – in particular Article 8, the right to a private and family life, and Article 10, the right to freedom of expression. Article 11, the right to protest and freedom of association, would also be impacted if plans to prohibit the handing out of free leaflets are brought forward.
‘If somebody is forced to beg or spend the night in a public toilet, that’s not a lifestyle choice or anti-social behaviour – that’s extreme poverty. Local authorities should focus on finding ways to help the most vulnerable – not criminalise them and slap them with fines they can’t possibly pay.’
