Leicester
Friends of the Earth would like to express our concerns about some of
the restrictions introduced by Leicester City Council with the Public
Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) that took effect on 31st
March 2025.
PSPOs
are a tool to tackle anti-social behaviour, used by many local
authorities to prohibit public consumption of drugs and alcohol.
Leicester City Council explain that they introduced a PSPO in the
city centre to ‘address
behaviours that cause harm or nuisance in public spaces’. In
Leicester, the restrictions include
drinking alcohol and
riding e-bikes or scooters in an anti-social manner, but also
prohibit
amplified
noise without prior permission and ‘setting up structures’
including tables, stalls and banners without council consent or
authorisation. We contacted
the City Council to ask
how to apply for authorisation to
have
a campaign stall (a
table with leaflets) in
the city centre, but
we
were told
that
there
will be no permissions granted for ‘temporary structures’ and
assured
‘Please
understand this does not replace your right to freedom of speech or
to distribute free literature but you are unable to do so from a
table.’
People
have always gathered in town and city centres to celebrate, to
protest and to share their ideas. This is why most towns and cities
have some kind of public space at their centre. In a democracy,
protesting and campaigning is not ‘anti-social behaviour’, in
fact, it is just the opposite. Spontaneous protests allow people to
react to events as they are happening and express their views
publicly. Campaign stalls allow us to display information and provide
space for people to fill in a petition or write a postcard to their
MP. The freedoms that working people now enjoy, including weekends
and paid sick leave, were hard won by tactics like these by the
labour movement. Campaigning is a profoundly pro-social activity.
There
is a worrying trend of restricting the right to protest in the UK and
Leicester City Council seem to be perpetuating that. Leicester
Friends of the Earth have had campaign stalls around the city centre
for decades, since the group formed in the 1970s. We have photos in
our archives of stalls in city centre streets about recycling and
saving the rainforest from the early days, and more recent stalls
about climate change and fracking. All of them would now be illegal.
Setting up a table makes us visible to passers-by, allows people to
come to us if they are interested in learning more without us needing
to approach them and provides something to lean on to fill in a
petition or a postcard. Some people choose to skirt around our stalls
and it is their right to do so. However, we have never received a
complaint that we are causing ‘harm or nuisance’ by sharing our
views on environmental issues in a public space. We believe that
prohibiting us from using a table does restrict our freedom of
speech, because simply distributing leaflets, (as the City Council
suggest), is far less effective than engaging with people and giving
them the opportunity to actively support a campaign.
We
urge Leicester City Council to reassess what they consider to be
anti-social behaviour and to revise their Public Space Protection
Order.
Public
Spaces Protection Orders
