'A waste of time and money' - NOBODY given fixed penalty notice under Kettering's PSPO laws for five years

An order to tackle anti-social behaviour in Kettering has been branded a ‘waste of time’ after nobody was punished for breaching it in five years.

Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) laws were controversially introduced in the town in 2016, giving police and council officers powers to hand out £100 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) and launch prosecutions if they were not paid.

The order banned street drinking, begging and even skateboarding in certain areas – although the latter was finally dropped last year after a campaign to have it removed.

Last year North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) renewed the order until 2025. But a Freedom of Information request by the Northants Telegraph has revealed that not a single person had a fixed penalty notice processed for breaching it in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 or 2022.

Labour’s Clark Mitchell, who first stood to be a councillor because he was outraged by the original decision of the now-defunct Kettering Borough Council to include skateboarding, said he was speechless that nobody had been given a fixed penalty notice.

He said: "I honestly do not understand what services the PSPO provides that are not already covered by current legislation.

"For it to have had no fines issued genuinely shocks me. It was a complete and utter waste of officers' time, the public's time and a waste of money to put signs up if they are not going to enforce it."

Cllr Mitchell added that he was not against the idea of the PSPO but that it is 'a sledgehammer being used to crack a walnut in certain situations'. And he said that all it's done is move street drinkers from the town centre to the Stamford Road area, which is not part of the area under the PSPO.

Josie Appleton, director at civil liberties campaign group the Manifesto Club, called for the order to be scrapped.

She said: "Kettering Borough Council's broad-brush PSPO created a number of absurd new crimes, including loitering, under-18s out between 11pm and 8am, begging and swearing.

"The lack of FPNs suggests that the law is not being consistently enforced, since loitering and swearing must have occurred in the PSPO area during the past few years.

"The best case scenario is that the PSPO is so broad it is unenforceable and unnecessary, and should be scrapped. It is also possible that this PSPO has been used to move people on or to stop their activities meaning a restriction on freedom which does not appear in FPN statistics – which would provide an even stronger reason for it to be scrapped."

But Cllr Dez Dell (Green) said he thinks that the fact nobody has been penalised is a good thing because it shows that rough sleepers and beggars are being engaged with, rather than simply hit with a penalty.

And Cllr Matt Binley (Con), NNC’s executive member for housing, community and levelling up, said: “As a council we do not want to punish people. As a responsible council we and the police use the PSPO to educate some people about their behaviour within the PSPO area so that the majority of the residents and visitors to Kettering can enjoy the town. We need laws to prevent and deter people carrying out anti-social behaviour, otherwise it is deemed to be acceptable.

“We have found people to have been very supportive of this approach. The extension of the PSPO was passed by our executive in July last year, and of those that responded to the consultation, more than half agreed that it should be extended for a further three years.

“A PSPO gives an authorised officer the power to speak to people in breach of the PSPO, take alcohol off them and attempt to stop a situation from happening in the first place.

“Issuing fixed penalty notices for breaches is the backstop and issuing an FPN is the last line in the chain before moving on to stronger forms of enforcement under the legislation.

“Our PSPOs are enforced quite differently in each town currently, largely due to enforcement capability shaped by former sovereign councils.

“The council will be reviewing PSPOs going forward across the NNC area.”

Doing something that is banned by the order, or failing to do something lawfully required by it, is an offence under the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014. Those believed to have committed an offence can be issued with a £100 FPN and if it is not paid within 14 days offenders can be prosecuted, leading to a criminal record.

Some who had previously been given a criminal behaviour order at court were prosecuted for breaching it by begging in Kettering, including Corby man Mark Weems who was jailed.