Council bosses in Newcastle are to renew a crackdown on street drinking and dog dirt in the city.
Civic centre leaders have decided to reimpose restrictions that can see £100 fines issued on the spot to anyone caught drinking alcohol in a public place, failing to clean up after their dog, or for not keeping their dog on a lead. Newcastle City Council’s cabinet agreed on Monday to confirm a new Public Space Protection Order (PSPO), in the hope of keeping the city’s streets safe and clean.
The order will run for three years and mirrors a previous one which was approved in summer 2020 and expired last week. Council bosses have previously used PSPOs to target other problems on Tyneside, including legal highs, aggressive begging and charity ‘chuggers’, but none of those are included in the latest controls.
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Anyone caught in breach of the PSPO can be hit with a £100 fixed penalty notice or even taken to court. At Monday evening’s meeting, city council leader Nick Kemp said he was keen for the authority to run a campaign promoting greater pride in people’s neighbourhoods to help deal with the “small minority” of offenders.
Lib Dem councillor Peter Lovatt said that dog fouling was a “huge problem” in the city and called for more stickers to be put on bins and lampposts to remind dog owners to pick up after their pets. However, he warned that enforcing the PSPO was “very difficult” as wardens report that many offences happen overnight.
Labour’s Paula Maines, the council’s cabinet member responsible for tackling anti-social behaviour, replied: “Most dog owners are very responsible, very reasonable people who would not dream of leaving dog dirt on the ground. But unfortunately we do have a very small minority who do.
“The PSPO gives us a legal duty to deal with people if we catch them and the animal in the act, or we have photos or whatever, and it is very difficult to catch dogs at it.”
Elsewhere, Gateshead Council also previously used a PSPO to crackdown on boy racer rallies at a Quayside car park.
