Leicester Friends of the Earth’s statement on the Public Space Protection Order in the city centre

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 31^st March 2025¹.

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.
1Public Spaces Protection Orders