Agenda and minutes

None

City Centre PSPO –

Invitees;

·         Helen Wilkie – Public Protection Manager

·         Inspector John Davies – Gwent Police

The Public Protection Manager introduced herself and Inspector John Davies to the Committee. The Officer provided an overview of the current Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) which was enacted on November 2015. It was advised that the Order will expire in November 2018 and would be considered timely to review it now with a view to enacting a revised City Centre PSPO, taking into account what has worked over the past two years, what restrictions need to be kept or revised, and whether new restrictions need to be introduced to tackle other forms of anti-social behaviour that are occurring in the city centre. Public consultation would take place in form of an online survey and information would be gathered ready for April’s meeting for the Committee to make recommendations to Council regarding the revised PSPO.

Each restriction was then discussed:

Street drinking

It was advised that street drinking is still prevalent, and is the main restriction breached. Two camps of drinkers were mentioned, those who move around dependant on weather, and pub and club goers ‘pre loading’ who bring beer with them before going into clubs. It was explained that the Licensing Committee have tried to combat this by declining requests from off-licences to extend the time they can sell alcohol. It was then recommended that this restriction stays in the Order.

Touting for services / donations

The Public Protection Manager was pleased to inform the Committee that there has been a decrease from previous years in the amount of charity agents along Commercial Street, although complaints are still being received about Internet Services, Phone Sellers and Claim Handlers. The Inspector advised that even though the Police are not getting a lot of complaints relating to this, it is still happening. The Committee were advised that it would be possible to keep this restriction but amend the definition, as traders are not covered in the Street Trading legislation.

Aggressive Begging

It was advised that there is still a problem with aggressive begging, and the Committee were directed to the report which states that the Community Safety Wardens deal with a high number of complaints, as do the Police. The Police Inspector advised that a number of Fixed Penalty Notices had been issued, and the Police have also issued Community Protection warnings. The Inspector advised that the Police feel that this area is still vastly underreported to them, even though the complaints that are being received are high.

The Inspector then advised that over the last 18 months aggressive begging has gotten worse, especially around cash points, and explained that most cash points in the night time have a beggar near which people find intimidating. The Committee were informed that due to the definition of “aggressive”, the Police need to secure witness statements to prove that the beggar had been aggressive for action to have been taken. The Police have been working with the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.