Councillors extend Hastings street drinking ban

On Monday (June 9), members of Hastings Borough Council’s cabinet agreed proposals connected with the town’s Anti-Social Behaviour Public Space Protection Order (PSPO), following a public consultation earlier this year.

Cabinet members agreed to both extend the existing PSPO for a further three years and to amend it so new areas of the town are covered by a ban on drinking alcohol in public spaces.

As a result, the public drinking of alcohol will soon also be prohibited in the area around the Falaise Fitness centre, including White Rock Gardens and the bowling green. The ban will also cover an area to the east of Queens Road, including Gaswork Step, Noonan Steps and the walled cemetery in Wallinger Walk.

The council had also consulted on extending the alcohol ban to cover the area around Linton Gardens as well, but decided against the measure following the public consultation.

Officers said the consultation responses (while generally supportive of the restriction) had highlighted how Linton Gardens is used for a number of community events, which would be affected by the ban.

Officers went on to say the town’s other parks and gardens have previously been deliberately omitted from the prohibition as they “offer places for families and organised groups to enjoy picnics and gatherings with small amounts of alcohol, rarely leading to anti-social behaviour.”

The town’s parks and gardens will continue to be covered by the wider PSPO, however, which includes a prohibition on antisocial behaviour in any public space within Hastings and St Leonards. The PSPO also makes it an offence to not surrender alcohol to an “authorised person” — such as a police or council warden — if asked.

Breaching any element of the PSPO can result in the issuing of fines.

The consultation had also initially been set to seek views about introducing a ban on sleeping in vehicles across the borough. This was subsequently dropped, with the council saying it would consider its approach to the “complex issue” of people sleeping in vehicles as part of a different consultation process.

Before being dropped, the potential ban on sleeping in vehicles had come in for strong criticism from some of the authority’s councillors, who argue it would effectively ‘criminalise homelessness’.