Council set to renew Public Spaces Protection Order in Doncaster city centre to tackle anti-social behaviour

On Wednesday, the council’s cabinet will vote whether to approve a revised Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO).

A PSPO is a type of legislation which makes certain anti-social behaviour an offence in specific areas and gives the police powers to deal with this.

Doncaster has had a PSPO active in the city centre since 2017, which was then renewed in 2020.

With the current PSPO set to come to an end in November, the council carried out a period of public consultation.

This resulted in recommendations from the council to renew it in the area with some amendments.

There are seven key elements to the order, some of which have undergone amendments.

Prohibitions on people requesting money will remain the same, as agreed by 71.5 percent of the public.

This means that any form of request for money including placing containers on the ground to do so is prohibited if it could cause annoyance.

A current prohibition of loitering around pay machines in a way that will cause harrassment or distress has been extended to include car parking payment machines.

While the majority voted to keep this the same, 32.5 percent voted in favour of extending the prohibition as amended.

A prohibition on those who have committed anti-social behaviour returning to the same place within 24 hours will remain the same.

While 68.1 percent agreed to keep this the same, the rest argued that it should be extended to a longer time period.

Both drinking alcohol outside of a licensed area and taking intoxicating substances will stay prohibited in the area, with this remaining unchanged.

70 to 80 percent of the public supported this, with the majority of other comments either calling for further punishment or addiction help for those caught doing so.

The prohibition of urinating and defecating in public will also remain unchanged, as supported by 78.5 percent of respondents.

Lastly, the stand-alone prohibition of interfering with car parking payment machines will be removed.

The council ruled that this is less prominent with the rise of payment apps and is therefore sufficiently covered within the loitering policy.