Members of the public are to be asked their views on a series of ‘quality of life’ issues that include proposals to ban dogs from some open areas, a clampdown on drinking in public spaces and handing out on-the-spot fines to beggars.
They come under Tunbridge Wells Borough Council’s advanced plans for Public Space Prevention Orders (PSPOs) that would be enforced across the borough.
The council’s Cabinet approved the scheme’s outline in a meeting on Thursday (October 26) and a six week public consultation will be carried out starting this month.
If proposals are eventually passed the Tunbridge Wells Community Safety Unit, a partnership between Kent Police and Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, would enforce fixed penalty notices for the following:
Begging: All persons are prohibited from approaching another person either in person or verbally in order to beg from the other person, and; All persons are prohibited from sitting or loitering in a public place with any receptacle used to contain monies for the purpose of begging.
Dog exclusion: A person in charge of a dog must not take it into, or keep it within a specified or signed area regardless of whether the animal is leashed or not.
New psychoactive substances: Person(s) within the designated area will not: prepare, possess, ingest, inhale, inject, smoke or otherwise use intoxicating substances.
Alcohol: A constable or authorised person may require a person not to consume, in breach of the Order, alcohol, or anything which the constable, or authorised person, reasonably believes to be alcohol.
Dog fouling: If a dog defecates at any time on land to which this order applies a person who is in charge of the dog at the time must remove the faeces from the land.
Means to pick up: A person in charge of a dog on land to which this order applies must have with him an appropriate means to pick up dog faeces deposited by that dog.
The consultation can be found on the
council’s website from Monday (November 6)
until Friday, November 15.
http://consult.tunbridgewells.gov.uk/portal
