City to toughen bans on e-scooters, drinking and distressing behaviour

Nicholas Thomas, local democracy reporter

Crackdown orders designed to stop antisocial behaviour, public drinking and other bad behaviour could be renewed for several areas of Newport.

Rules against the riding of e-scooters could also be strengthened.

The council has announced it is planning to renew Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) for the Pill neighbourhood and the city centre.

The orders give council officers powers to seize prohibited items, hand out fines or pursue prosecutions of people breaking the rules.

A council report shows there is “overwhelming evidence” that a PSPO is still required in the city centre, owing to “heightened levels of antisocial behaviour and crime”.

Begging

The existing order contains several rules that will remain unchanged if the PSPO is renewed, including those prohibiting unauthorised “street trading”, begging near cash machines or in an “aggressive or intimidating” way, dogs off leads, and the use or sale of “intoxicating substances” or legal highs.

A general ban on alcohol consumption within the PSPO area will simplify previous wording which “proved to be ineffective” in dealing with antisocial street drinking, because it focused on individual containers of booze, rather than the activity itself.

Similarly, the council will simplify bans on behaviour causing harassment, alarm or distress.

Rules on dispersal powers and a ban on electric scooters and other “unsafe” riding will also be updated after previous wording proved “impracticable” or “ineffective”.

Riding e-scooters is only allowed in Wales on private land with the landowner’s permission, and the council acknowledges a problem with the antisocial use of the vehicles in the city centre.

It is hoped the rewording of the PSPO will simplify the council’s position on e-scooters.

In Pill, the council has also proposed keeping several parts of the existing PSPO, including rules against “aggressive” begging and the use of “intoxicating substances”.

But like in the city centre, other rules could be updated to include more appropriate wording.

Pill

The council has proposed making similar reworded updates to bans on consuming alcohol, alarming or distressing behaviour, and e-scooters in Pill.

However, several other parts of the neighbourhood’s existing PSPO could be removed entirely.

These include a ban on spitting – deemed “difficult to enforce” – as well as on attempts to buy sexual services and on public urination or defecation.

In those cases, the council argues Gwent Police would be better placed than its own officers to tackle such criminal behaviour.

Both proposals to renew the PSPOs are expected to go out for public consultation in the near future.

The council is also expected to consult the public on revising the PSPO for Maesglas to match the proposed wording for the Pill and city centre renewals.