F2C warned you last year that the devolution of Public Health to local councils was going to impact severely on freedoms. We also fervently encouraged you to get re-involved locally. What we didn’t notice was that a creeping insidious mean little law was introduced in last week’s Queen’s Speech, which will probably have even more impact than the devolution of Public Health.
This is the ‘Public Spaces Protection Order’. A big hat tip to Josie Appleton from spikedonline for the information, and to F2C’s ‘Tony’ for spotting it.
Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPO) will replace alcohol-control zones (Designated Public Space Orders). These new, much broader orders can be used to ban any activity and can also impose positive conditions, requiring people to do something rather than simply refrain from an activity. The local authority can obtain this order if it judges that the activity in question has a ‘detrimental effect’ on the ‘quality of life’ in an area; or, if the activity has not yet been carried out, that it is likely to be carried out and is likely to have a detrimental effect. Given local authorities’ apparent dislike of most social activities, this could have a wide application.
This could make the little Stoney Stratford parish council attempt at banning open air smoking look like a fairy tale.
The new legislation can and will be seized upon by every tinpot public health dictator throughout the country. We can look forward to bans on drinking, smoking, and eating unhealthy food in public.
The new health era is coming to your area soon. Get ready.