Street drinking ban set to be extended

A ban on street drinking in the city centre looks to be extended for a further three years.

The public space protection order (PSPO) bans the drinking of alcohol throughout the city centre – and several other parts of Worcester – and also forces people to give up their booze.

The PSPO will apply to the whole of Worcester’s city centre and additional areas at Cranham Drive and Windermere Drive in Warndon, King George V playing fields, an area around Rose Avenue in Tolladine and the Blackpole Industrial Estate.

Anyone found in breach of the rules would be guilty of a criminal offence and could receive a fixed penalty notice of up to £70 or, if prosecuted via a magistrate’s court, a maximum fine of £1,000.

Worcester City Council’s communities committee meets on Wednesday (May 26) and will be asked to extend the current order, which came into force in 2018, until August 2024 before it expires in three months time.

West Mercia Police said there had been 936 incidents of alcohol-related anti-social behaviour in the city centre between August 2017 and March 2021. The number of incidents dropped by a quarter in the first year of the order.

The council carried out a public consultation on the extension proposals in March with 165 replies.

More than three quarters of respondents were aware of the order and 109 of those people recognised the signs used to advertise the areas covered by the PSPO.

Seventy per cent of people said they agreed that alcohol-related anti-social behaviour was an issue and more than 60 per cent of people said they report it to police if they saw it.

Thirty per cent of people said they would not report alcohol-related anti-social behaviour at all if they saw it. Half of the respondents said the current order had been effective or ‘somewhat’ effective.

Just under two thirds of people said the current area covered by the order was ‘appropriate’ and a quarter of people said it needed to be extended further.