Agenda item

[William Humphries, Service Lead ,Environmental Health, to present briefing on city centre regulation]

William Humphries, Service Lead, Environmental Health, introduced the briefing paper and explained that the title should have been city centre regulation to better reflect the focus of the work. Service Lead explained that the title of future reports to the panel on this topic would be changed accordingly.

Service Lead explained the reasons for wanting to update the panel on this issue and to highlight the difficulty in finding long term solutions that would mitigate the impact of the issues detailed in the briefing paper.

Service Lead explained that the issues need to be considered in the context of Government attempts to deal with specific nuisance problems in a specified area through new powers detailed in ASB Crime and Behaviour Act 2014. Service Lead explained that the Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) was aimed at stopping individuals or groups committing anti-social behaviour in public spaces. Service Lead gave examples of local authorities seeking to use the PSPO who failed to get public to support the proposal when they were consulted about the plan to restrict a specific activity. A breach of the order could lead to number of escalating scale of action.

Service Lead explained that the power has been not as successful as was hoped when first published and Councils were looking at other options to mitigate the issues such as begging, busking and street preaching which has been identified from complaints  received as an issue.  Service Lead explained in further detail the reasons for including the issues listed in the paper as being a priority for action. Service Lead gave a summary of the current and future action planned to deliver the necessary improvements.

Service Director commented on the issue of commercial bins stored on the highway and the problems caused by some city centre businesses not having a secure location and space and options being considered, for example, bin sharing or storing bins in an agreed secure location.

The panel commented that it was difficult to reach a view about the suitability of the proposed responses to the issues listed without information about the size of the problem, for example, what proportion of business in the city centre place their commercial bins on public highways?

The panel queried the potential to use Council planning control powers to restrict and or mitigate the problems caused by commercial bins. Service Lead commented that some businesses were located in premises that could not be used to store bins due to the limited size available.

The panel discussed the issue of begging in the city centre and there was concern that the police were reluctant to use their powers to deal with this issue or intervene when they see instances. Service Lead explained the work being done to provide services to encourage people to use alternatives. Service Lead commented that a night shelter for homeless people will be opening shortly in Wolverhampton.

However, based on past experience some homeless people may be unwilling to accept the offer due to the restrictions that apply to people who stay there.

Service Lead explained that a defence that has been used by people accused of begging was that there were offered money by a member of the public and did not ask for help.

Service Lead explained that the Vagrancy Act 1824 allows beggars to be fined. However, in practice the courts were unlikely to impose a fine which they would be unlikely to able to pay. Service Lead explained the work being done to encourage public to give money to charities rather than directly to beggars. The scheme would involve collection boxes being made available in city centre shops. Service Lead accepted the difficult in finding a solution to the issue of begging but argued the need think of different ways of addressing the problem.

Cabinet Member for City Environment commented that the current policy towards begging will be reviewed in 2017 but was open to the idea of using the current civil enforcement team as part of multi approach to mitigating the effects of issues which cause a nuisance.

Cabinet Member commented on the idea of developing a code of practice for buskers to deal with nuisance issues in the city centre, but such a plan would depend on getting agreement and also there were practical problems in enforcing statutory nuisance provisions. Service Lead commented on the number of complaints received from city centre businesses about noise levels which they consider is having a negative effect on efforts to make the area more attractive to shoppers and visitors.

The panel discussed the issue of the impact of begging on city centre businesses and commented on the need to recognise that people may be in genuine need and experiencing hardship. A panel member commented that the experience from other cities such as Oxford suggesting that begging in the city centre does not affect the number of tourists wanting to visit.

The panel discussed the issue of street preaching and their use of loud hailers which had received complaints from both members of the public and businesses about the nuisance caused.

The panel welcomed the report.

Resolved:

The panel to receive a progress report in 12 months on the impact of current and planned changes to city centre regulations and other initiatives aimed at mitigating the effects of issues highlighted in complaints received from businesses and members of the public.