15 November 2016 — Manifesto Club
Community Protection Notices ban crying in your own home; bans on busking and charity collection; victory for the Forest of Dean sheep commoners; and more…
Community Protection Notices (CPNs) are a little-known power that that effectively allows council employees to issue people with ASBOs on the spot. The officer need only fill in a form saying what you must do, or not do, and it is a crime for you to disobey this order.
Our new report found that CPNs have been used to order people to cut their lawn or clean their windows, as well as to target the homeless and prevent them from sleeping or entering certain areas. CPNs have even been issued banning people from crying or arguing in their own home.
Read the report here.
The report was covered in The Times, Daily Mail, politics.co.uk, Evening Standard, BBC 2’s Daily Politics, i-news, and many local news programmes. See all media coverage.
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PSPOS – NEW THREATS, NEW VICTORIES
Redbridge Council is currently consulting on a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) that will ban busking in non-designated spots, ‘badly organised’ public events, charity collectors in non-designated spots, spitting, and ‘aggressive begging’. See our response to the consultation.
Newcastle is consulting on a PSPO that would ban possessing a hat or a cup which may be used for begging; it would also ban people from visibly carrying bedding. Sunderland is planning to ban begging and ‘bin raking’. See our commentary and links to the consultations.
Dog bans: We were quoted in the Daily Telegraph on the Kennel Club’s excellent report about the banning of dog walking in thousands of parks.
Victory for the sheep commoners in the Forest of Dean! Forest of Dean Council was planning to ban sheep from the village of Bream. Sheep commoners won a narrow victory when the council committee voted to reject the order. This shows the importance of PSPOs passing through council democratic procedures and being subject to local and national scrutiny and debate. Read an account of the victory here.
The New Dark Age 
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