Boston’s street drinking controls, Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) “Alcohol”, introduced back in January 2015, has been extended for another three-year period with the area covered by the order to remain the same.
Police and council officials say far fewer people are consuming alcohol in the town centre and areas where the rules apply.
Peter Hunn, the council’s community safety manager, said: “There has been a noticeable reduction in street drinking in the town centre since these controls were put in place. The purpose of this order was to remove street drinkers from the town centre and it looks like it is working.”
Cllr Paul Skinner, Leader of the Council, said: “The Council was the first in the country to make such an order when the Government passed new legislation in late Autumn, 2014. Since this was introduced it has been a great success. Policing teams have the power to act, which they have, and most people adhere to their requests.
“Anyone failing to stop drinking alcohol, when requested to do so by a police officer, could be fined up to £500. The new rules were introduced to remove the need for street drinking of alcohol to be combined with an element of anti-social behaviour before police could take action.”
Enforcement action shows that 1269 individuals have been dealt with under a tiered approach to enforcement since the order came into force and that 121 of those 1269 were repeat drinkers stopped by a police officer or police community support officer within the controlled area.
Only 2 people have breached the Public Spaces Protection Order since it first commenced in January 2015. These two individuals failed to comply with either a police officer or police community support officer when they failed to leave the controlled area or stop consuming alcohol with immediate effect. These individuals were both issued with a fixed penalty fine.
