Birmingham City Centre PSPO consultation

Overview

You may be aware that there has been work amongst partners throughout Birmingham City Centre to address anti-social behaviour (ASB) in the local area .  These behaviours cause singificant concern for residents, businesses and visitors to the area.

As part of the partnership approach towards this problem, it has been decided to apply for a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) for The City Centre.

PSPO’s are part of the new ASB legislation which was introduced nationally in October 2014.  This new Order provides the Police with additional powers across a defined geographical area to tackle a wide range of anti-social behaviours.  In The City Centre, this is being introduced to address anti-social street drinking, groups gathering, begging and related ASB.  It will introduce prohibitions for groups of people congregating and causing ASB and people behaving antisocially when under the influence of alcohol & drugs. 

The order also requires any young person, found to be in breach, to be referred to the Early Intervention Team at the Youth Offending Service, who will provide appropriate diversionary measures. Any person, found to be in breach, with drug & alcohol issues, to be referred to Drug & Alcohol rehabilitation services.  Any person found to be begging to be refered to the Street Intervention Team for housing and benefit support.

This Order has been informed by evidence from residents, businesses and professionals, which demonstrates the scale of the issue for the local community.  We aim for it to be implemented for a period of time up to 3 years.

We are now at the consultation phase for this Order, which will conclude on Sunday 11th November 2018.  I have attached a draft of the Order, which provides further information.  As part of this, are you able to provide me with comments in support of, or against, this Public Space Protection Order?  These will be reviewed before the decision is taken whether or not to proceed.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss further.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Emma Postin

What happens next

Your feedback is important to us and will be used to gauge public support for this approach to tackle ASB at a local level. The information you provide will also be used to help shape the look and feel of the final order.