16 March 2016
Southampton and District Green Party have expressed strong opposition against the steps taken by the City Council in implementing Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) across five key areas of the city. Criminalising the poor, through this control of public spaces, will not stop them being poor and will further marginalise and stigmatise a vulnerable group of people. These orders will not solve any of the issues facing this city, in particular of those who have no assets to defend their human rights.
The orders also infringe on our public spaces, spaces that are already under threat of private takeover given this government’s massive assault on public assets and spaces. The council argue these orders will target con-artists, but how exactly will these allegations be proven?
Joe Cox standing as a Green Party candidate in Bargate ward in the May local elections, one of the wards which now is mainly covered by a new protection zone, questioned the mechanics of the new by-laws implemented. He said:
“The new law is a divisive implement to segregate certain people from the rest of our society. Cllr Warwick Payne is trying to assure people that the Police will be left to target individuals, yet how long will it be before private companies are hired to uphold these authoritarian measures?”
In the City Council ward of Portsword, another ward where a PSPO now exists, it is an election issue. Kieren Brown standing in Portswood for the Green Party is the only election candidate standing in Portswood to have voiced objection to the PSPOs.
Kieren reaffirmed,
'With homeless charities and researchers saying this will have impacts with wide ranging consequences I cannot and will not support PSPOs in Southampton.'
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