The Coventry village square where street drinking and drug dealing are 'tolerated' | Coventry Live

Councillors want more action on anti-social behaviour in the city

Boozing in public, begging and drugs are still blighting areas of Coventry despite powers being in place to crack down on these activities. Street drinking, drug taking and drug dealing are "the norm" in Hillfields' village square, according to ward councillor David Welsh.

Cllr Welsh (Lab) claimed the behaviour is "tolerated by all agencies to a degree" while those living there have to see it every day.

"People drink all day on the street, they queue up for their drugs, they take their drugs, they go to the toilet behind the community centre which is very near Sidney Stringer Primary, and then they carry on," he said.

READ MORE: Police extra powers renewed as Coventry city centre crime rates spike

He and other councillors told of the daily anti-social behaviour they see in areas of the city at a Scrutiny Board meeting this week (19 April.)

They were critical of how special powers brought in to deal with undesirable activities almost a decade ago are being used by the council and police.

Police trying to tackle 'underlying problems'

Since 2014, Coventry has had five Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) put in to ban certain activities from specific areas. Some things such as driving untaxed and uninsured cars are banned citywide while in Hillfields drug taking, drug dealing and alcohol misuse are not allowed.

But while PSPOs by law can be enforced with immediate fines, in Coventry a decision was made to tackle "underlying behaviours," the meeting heard. Rule-breakers get 'breach notices' which can lead to fines or court summons - but "more often than not" only result in the person's details being taken and a referral to support agencies.

Coventry council has "finite resources" which makes enforcement of the powers challenging, said Community Safety Officer Liam Nagle. Just eight council enforcement officers - two more are expected to join - can use the powers alongside police, and only two are usually in the city centre.

These officers, who work from 7am-7pm seven days a week, also have to patrol hotspot areas for fly-tipping which are often in areas not covered by specific PSPOs, such as Foleshill.

Data on how the powers are used is still limited, due to challenges in how police gather and record the information, a report said. While a new app will give police the ability to log this more easily and with GPS data it could be months before this is introduced.

In March there were just over 50 breaches of PSPOs recorded in Coventry, mostly in the city centre, the meeting heard. Superintendent Ronan Tyrer said the powers are part of a "rich tapestry" of resources police use to tackle anti-social behaviour.

"I think actually success is a reduction in the enforcement, because we're actually dealing with the underlying problems," he said.

Councillors say public is 'losing confidence' in community safety

But Coventry councillors weren't happy with the explanations and called for more to be done to reassure the people they represent. Cllr Naeem Ahktar (Lab), chair of the Scrutiny Board, said: "This is a joke now that we've got something in place but we don't have resources to enforce it."

Cllr Julia Lepoidevin (Con) said: "I do understand the need for dealing with underlying problems, that they are huge. But I have to tell you as a ward councillor the public are losing confidence in community safety and in police, and they certainly are in my ward. What we're doing isn't enough."

Cllr Jackie Gardiner (Con) said success for her and colleagues will be seeing the behaviour reduce. She said: "If we get less complaints then we are seeing that it's successful - but we keep getting the complaints."

Cllr Jim O'Boyle (Lab), who represents St Michael's ward, said he and ward colleagues had been "good advocates" of PSPOs for police and officers. He said the debate was about "public confidence" in how the powers are being used, and highlighted the lack of statistics in the report to show this.

"That quite frankly in a democratic society is not good enough," he said. "When we introduce powers, we expect them to be used, proportionately yes but we expect them to be used."

Cllr O'Boyle also talked about the unique challenges faced by the area he represents. He said: "We've got street workers, we don't have them anywhere else in the city.

"That then attracts the sort of detrius of criminal fraternity, such as drug dealers, who then bring in knives, they bring in guns. That's happening to people, and they see that on their streets daily."

"That's unacceptable. So when we say we want to see the powers used, that's what we mean," he added. "Because we're talking about individuals who often are scared of going outside the house, are scared about reporting because of reprisals."

His ward colleague, Cllr Welsh, said the council has been working to help tackle underlying problems such as homelessness.

"But at some point we need to say to people you shouldn't be doing that here and you need to move on," he said. "I see the beggars, people in the city centre see the beggars. And this is the challenge, people say to us well the powers aren't working and police aren't doing anything."

Claims more fines 'naïve' and police 'at mercy of magistrates'

Councillors asked if more officers could be given powers to use the PSPOs. Mr Hickin said he believed 10 is enough and added that as fly-tipping is "coming back under control" resources could be moved around.

The meeting also heard that council and police are often "at the mercy of magistrates" when it comes to enforcement. Courts decide whether powers, such as banning people from areas of the city, can be used - and officers have been left "despairing" at the outcomes.

"Police officers have put some massive amounts of work in, we've had individuals who've had numerous breaches, significant amounts of officer time have been commited to it," Mr Nagle told the meeting.

"A magistrate will look at it. They'll see that they've got drug addiction problems, see that they might possibly be homeless. They'll purely view them in a vulnerable status. And as such they're reluctant to take any signficant enforcement action."

He said the council are working with the judiciary to make them aware of people's concerns, but "we can only do so much."

Mr Nagle added: "Ultimately PSPOs, at their heart, are an infringement on people's civil liberties. Because you're free to do x, y and z ordinarily but the minute a PSPO is in place we are looking to tell you what to do. And we have to strike a very careful balance with that."

Cllr O'Boyle responded: "People's civil liberties about going about their own peaceful business is being stopped because of illegal and terrible behaviour on our streets in our city. That is the point."

But Deputy council leader and Cabinet Member for Policing, Cllr Abdul Khan (Lab), spoke up in support of what council and police are doing.

"Simply saying increasing the fines would be a solution would be naive," he said. "Principally because many of the people who have been dealt with in respect to public space protection orders don't have the means to pay the fines."

Cllr Khan, who works as a magistrate in Birmingham, said sometimes there are cases without enough evidence to meet the threshold - and each one is considered individually.

"I think enforcement is correctly the last course of action," he added. "I think members shouldn't go away from this meeting today thinking that council officers or police are inactive, because I know that they're not."

Do you live in these areas and have you been affected by anti-social behaviour? Get in touch: ellie.brown@reachplc.com

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