Anti-social behaviour orders for North Devon

Booze, drugs and begging rules for Barnstaple and Ilfracombe

Measures to crackdown on anti-social behaviour in two North Devon towns are set to be introduced.

North Devon Council’s strategy and resources committee has recommended that to full council that measures to reduce anti-social behaviour in Barnstaple and Ilfracombe are implemented. If approved, the regulations will last three years.

Council officers’ would be able to issue £100 fixed penalty notices to anyone who breaches the Public Spaces Protection Order, which introduces restrictions on drink and drug use and possession, public urination, aggressive begging and intimidating behaviour.

Tim Birtwisle, community protection officer, told the meeting that the proposed restriction of areas in Barnstaple and Ilfracombe will apply at all times of the year.

When the council consulted on measures earlier this year, 90 per cent of respondents were in favour, but as the existing PSPO expired on 20 October, there was a need for new measures to enable the council to manage anti-social behaviour.

People in the areas the PSPO covers must:

• Surrender intoxicating substance in their possession when requested to do so to an authorised person
• Not to urinate in a street or public place
• Not to behave, either individually or in a group of two or more people, in a manner that has caused or is likely to cause a member of the public to suffer harassment alarm or distress
• Not aggressively beg

No decision on proposed restrictions in Braunton, Woolacombe, Croyde and Combe Martin, which would apply between 1 April and 30 September each year has yet been made.