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Nottingham City Council Threatening Right to Protest

Resident | 14.07.2009 18:06

Check out proposal 11 here:

 http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=5850


 http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=5850

The above website shows some public consultation that Nottingham City Council are carrying out in relation to the 'sustainable communities act'.

According to their website:

'Nottingham City Council - under the Sustainable Communities Act - has the opportunity to ask the government to change policies or laws to allow the Council to address issues that concern local communities more effectively.'

They have listed 11 proposals they would like to see and are asking people to 'agree' or 'disagree' and give comments.

 http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=5850

Their proposals threaten our civil liberties. For example, they are trying to stop protesting and leafleting in Market Square!

Quote from website:"
11. Public Safety Zones

Public open spaces (such as Old Market Square) are sometimes affected by issues such as alcohol consumption, protests, leafleting, cycling, skateboards, busking, pedlars, etc. The City Council wants public areas of the city to be kept safe for all to enjoy.

Proposal: give the City Council the power to designate areas as “community safety designated zones” to ensure public safety and reduce anti-social behaviour, crime and disorder."

They are also trying to control the movements of repeat offenders - which may affect on the activist community:

"5. Repeat offenders
The City Council wants to protect communities by restricting the movement of offenders in the areas where the crimes where committed.

Proposal: where a person commits more than one offence, allow the courts to make an order to control the movements of offenders."

Visit the website and make your views known:

 http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=5850

If they get a lot of people agreeing with their proposals they'll no doubt use the results to help them extend their powers and reduce our civil liberties.

Resident

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

Dangerous

14.07.2009 18:16

The suggestion that protest might be banned from public spaces such as Old Market Square is anti-democratic, authoritarian and worrying in the extreme. Whose 'safety' is being protected by banning political protest? It is certainly not in the interests of the citizens of Nottingham as it represents a direct attack on their right to free assembly. See the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 20:
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

If you can't freely assemble in public spaces then where the hell can you?

It is worrying and revealing that they are bundling up protest with anti-social behaviour in their approaches to governing public space.

D-Double E

We all need to oppose this

14.07.2009 21:29

OK, no illusions about the council listening to what we say. But if our rights to protest are curtailed, then we have no rights. So firstly, let's oppose this by letter-writing, hassling councillors etc. If/when that fails, we all have to turn up in the Square and make our protests and hand out our leaflets. Over and over again. Public spaces are our spaces. And they will only stay like that if we claim them - repeatedly.

If anti-social behaviour is to be banned, then that should not apply to political protestors, but to the power-hungry who dream up these authoritarian rules. We will not let them get away with this anti-social behaviour.

No illiusions