Summary

Local authoritarianism continues to spread, with a rash of local councils abusing their power to make Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) to crack down on speech they don’t like. Previously, the FSU has succeeded in persuading Redbridge and Cumberland councils to back down from making PSPOs which would have unlawfully restricted the speech rights of their residents. Last week, Thanet District Council passed a PSPO of their own, and this is the worst one we have seen.

The FSU believes that this PSPO is unlawful for a number of reasons: it is so irrational that no reasonable public authority could have arrived at the decision they did; it exceeds the powers granted to the council by Parliament; and it represents an impermissible interference with the right to freedom of speech under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Therefore, we have written to Thanet District Council with a letter before claim, a formal legal warning that unless they immediately take steps to discharge the PSPO, we intend to commence judicial review proceedings, to seek an order declaring the PSPO unlawful and quashing their decision.