Agenda item

Simon Colburn, Assistant Director – Health and Environment Services

a.    presented a report to:

                      i.        inform committee of a proposal to implement a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) to provide additional tools and powers to reduce and  manage incidents of ASB and drug use within the Councils multi-storey carparks namely Lucy Tower, Lincoln Central and Broadgate.

                    ii.        inform the committee of the public and partner consultation responses received and to seek the views of the committee on the proposal.

b.    gave the background to the report and advised that the purpose of the proposed PSPO was to provide additional tools and powers to tackle ongoing and protracted ASB occurring on a regular basis within the multi-storey carparks.

c.    proposed that the PSPO be put in place for a maximum period of 3 years after which a full review would take place.

d.    advised that a significant number of complaints had been received relating to Anti-Social behaviour taking place in the multi-storey car parks and highlighted the number of reported incidents in each of the 3 multi storey car parks.

e.    advised that the Council had already taken positive steps to address the number of reported incidents including introducing CCTV which was assisting with deterrence and would assist in the enforcement aspect of the proposed PSPO.

f.     advised that a public and private consultation had taken place between Monday 23^rd September 2019 and Friday 8^th November 2019. As part of the consultation partners were approached directly to seek their views and any evidence they held in relation to the proposed PSPO.

g.    referred to paragraph 5 of the report and summarised the responses received from the consultation.

h.    referred to paragraph 6 of the report and highlighted the evidence including reported incidents, full details of the information provided from the internal incident reporting system provided by City of Lincoln Council Corporate Health and Safety Team were shown in Appendix C to the report.

i.      advised on the additional powers that the PSPO would provide as detailed at paragraph 8 of the report.

j.      referred to paragraph 9 of the report and advised how the PSPO would be implemented and enforced.

k.    advised on the impact of COVID 19 as detailed at paragraph 9 of the report and stated that there was a very clear requirement for the Councils buildings and property to be Covid secure and a need for the customers to be able to safely use the facilities provided.

l.      invited members questions and comments

Comment : Referred to paragraph 8.1 of the report and commented that he felt that this approach was sympathetic but also this process would make dealing with anti- social behaviour quicker and simpler.

Question: P3 was not supportive of the PSPO, had they provided any suggestions on how the issue could be dealt with better?

Response: P3 was reluctant to support the criminalisation of certain behaviours. However, the Council and Police were supportive of introducing powers which allowed for criminal action to be taken as a last resort. If approved, the PSPO would be one of a range of tools that could be used to tackle anti-social behaviour in the multi-storey car parks.

RESOLVED that the proposal to implement a PSPO be supported and referred to Executive for approval.