Agenda item

Report of Director of Community Protection

Steve Stott, Anti-Social Behaviour Manager – Community Protection introduced a report on Street Drinking and Associate Anti-Social Behaviour to the Committee. He summarised the nature of street drinking in the Arboretum, Dunkirk and Lenton, and Radford and Park Wards and outlined the legal tools and powers that are available to tackle the issue. He highlighted the following points:

(a)  street drinking is not currently an offence, however there are a number of tools that enable Police and Community Protection to tackle anti-social behaviour related to it;

(b)  Designated Public Places Orders (DPPOs) enable local authorities to designate areas where restrictions on public drinking apply. In early 2014 existing locality based DPPO’s were extended to cover the whole of Nottingham City;

(c)  DPPO’s allow Police officers, Police Community Support Officers (PCSO’s) and Community Protection Officers (CPO’s) to require surrender of alcohol from anyone with the designated area, only if they feel the person consuming alcohol is causing a problem or is likely to cause a problem;

(d)  during 2016 118 alcohol confiscations were recorded in Arboretum and 79 recorded across Dunkirk and Lenton, and Radford and Park;

(e)  DPPO’s were effectively abolished by the introduction of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 and replaced by Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPO’s). Under transitional arrangements existing DPPO’s remain in force as DPPO’s until October 2017;

(f)  PSPO’s are designed to stop individuals/groups committing anti-social behaviour in a public place and the local authority may make a PSPO if it is satisfied that activities in a public place have a persistent detrimental impact on the quality of life of those in the locality;

(g)  PSPO’s require extensive formal consultation from Police, Community representatives and the owners/occupiers of land within the area;

(h)  PSPO’s can contain the prohibition on consuming alcohol in public and as such go further than the DPPO, a PSPO has been recently introduced in the Hockley area of Nottingham  which includes this ban on street drinking;

(i)  PSPO’s are enforced by Police/PCSO’s and CPO’s. Breach of a PSPO is an offence, but only punishable at court by means of financial penalty - £70 fine. A fixed penalty notice may be offered in place of criminal proceedings;

(j)  the financial penalty may have an impact on some groups causing problems through street drinking but will have limited impact on those who are alcohol dependant where treatment is needed rather than enforcement;

(k)  in October 2017 Nottingham City’s current DPPO will convert to a PSPO with the same terms unless the appropriate consultation is carried out to vary the restrictions. It is possible to have different PSPO’s in different parts of the city;

(l)  Dispersal powers contained within the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 are also available for Police to address street drinking by requiring the dispersal of individuals involved in anti-social behaviour and can provide a short term respite to communities;

(m)A Police Officer of at least Inspector rank may authorise the use of these powers in a specific area for a specific period of up to 48 hours if it is necessary for the purpose of removing or reducing the occurrence of crime and disorder in the locality, or reducing the likelihood of members of the public suffering harassment, alarm or distress;

(n)  There are also other tools that can be used to tackle street drinking – Community Protection Notices (CPN’s) which allow authorised officers to stop a person aged over 16 from committing persistent anti-social behaviour.

(o)  CPNs can be issued to individual street drinkers and can contain prohibitions and positive requirements. A CPN waring has to be issued before a CPN can be and a breach of the CPN is a criminal office which can result in a Fixed Penalty Notice or prosecution;

(p)  Where a CPN is not effective Civil injunctions and Criminal Behaviour Orders can be considered, both options allow the court to consider positive requirements  such as compelling engagement with alcohol dependency support;

(q)  Operation Absenter specifically targets street drinking in Radford East, the Forest Recreation Ground and on the Arboretum and Hyson Green Police beats;

(r)  Police are conducting proactive alcohol confiscations under the terms of the current DPPO and considering the use of CPN’s against repeat offenders. This work is taking place closely with Framework to ensure those individuals who may benefit from alcohol dependence support work are referred appropriately;

(s)  Operation Absenter also targets the smaller parks within the area and delivers high visibility patrols. There have also been changes to the layout of benches within the Forest Recreation ground to enable easier policing;

(t)  off campus drinking by students tends to be concentrated within Arboretum, Dunkirk and Lenton, and Radford and Park wards. Patrols are now targeting these drinkers on a Wednesday night every week, working alongside the universities to reduce the anti-social behaviour associated with street drinking;

(u)  on the first night, 1 February, over 200 alcohol confiscations took place. Police officers and Community Protection Officers on patrol reported that there was no trouble, and all confiscations took place easily, amicably and respectfully, patrols have taken place every Wednesday night since with a similar degree of good nature;

(v)   Police are gathering evidence from bottles and receipts and bags found in street drinking hotspots in order to establish if any particular premises are in breach of their licence. New applications for licences are carefully considered on an individual basis and if it becomes obvious that any particular premises are selling alcohol irresponsibly then action will be taken;

(w)the existing Alcohol Saturation Zone covers part of Arboretum and Radford and Park Wards and takes into account the cumulative  impact of the number of licences premises. Consideration could be given to extending the existing zone to include the high density student areas;

Following questions and comments from the Committee the following further points were made:

(x)  although a case could be made against the smaller alcohol outlets it is unlikely that action could be taken against the larger and well established outlets  such as major supermarkets;

(y)  following the first night of action in the student area and Derby Road corridor many students threw away their alcohol before being required through confiscation, and in following weeks students have remained good natured and compliant with the 105 confiscations that have taken place;

(z)  these nights of action are resource heavy but early indications show that by reducing the alcohol on the streets at the peak time between 7pm and 9pmhas had an impact on the number of issues later in the evenings;

(aa)  Residents are under the misconception that the areas covered by the DPPO are “Alcohol Free” zones – this is not the case. DPPO’s do not make street drinking an illegal activity;

(bb)  Feedback from residents indicated that these nights of action are reducing the level of noise and alcohol related detritus in the streets;

(cc)  Community Protection officers are working with the universities to go into orientation weeks in order to get the message of neighbourhood cohesion to the students at the earliest opportunity. For many students it is the first time living independently within the community;

(dd)  Pictorial notices could be considered to get the message across to those who use English as an additional language within the emerging communities.

(ee)  An article will be put in the Area newsletter reminding residents of the DPPO and it may be worth considering putting information messages across on student radio too;

RESOLVED to

(1)  thank Steve Stott for his report on Street Drinking and associated Anti-Social Behaviour and to note its contents;