The Worcester city centre PSPO is no more!

Last night, on the 13th March 2024, Worcester City Council Communities Committee voted to scrap the city centre Public Space Protection Order (PSPO), in accordance with the recommendations of the officers.The PSPO was introduced 3 years ago, and prohibited a number of perceived 'problems', which if breached could result in a Fixed Penalty Notice for the offender. Of interest was the specific issues being targeted, notably deliberate feeding of gulls, aggressive begging, and dangerous cycling or skateboarding. Overnight the city centre was filled with signs telling people not to do things they weren't doing anyway, with many commenting on how the appearance of the city had becoming garish and unwelcoming. Two of our intrepid volunteers, Alex Mace and Dan Brothwell, braved the meeting and spoke in the public speaking section in support of removing the PSPOs (notably around dangerous cycling), and then had the strength and mental fortitude to last the meeting and listen to the debate. In all honesty, I suspect there words did little to sway any councillors as it seemed all but one were in favour of the officer's recommendations.But as Alex and Dan went to the effort of attending the meeting, here's what they both said:Dan Brothwell:"Thank you for your time. I’m Dan Brothwell, Chair of Bike Worcester, and I’d like to talk about the PSPO being discussed this evening, in particular the element associated with the prohibition of dangerous cycling and skateboarding.Bike Worcester exists to enable and encourage more people to travel by bike in the city. In this regard we’re perfectly aligned with central government policy, which is targeting 50% of journeys to be by walking and cycling by 2030, and we’re pleased that this is now acknowledged in the City Active Travel Plan, and the County Council Active Travel Stakeholder Forum, and will no doubt be acknowledged in the LCWIP currently being developed for the city, and in LTP5 when it’s produced. My understanding is that increasing rates of active travel is desirable to all of the political parties locally, and to everyone in this room. Given all of this, let’s focus our efforts on discussing how we achieve this.With regard to the PSPO the officer report points out that the dangerous cycling and skateboarding can be enforced under other legislation, and that in fact the PSPO has proven not to be enforceable, with regard to officers being unable to stop moving traffic and that FPNs can’t be issued to minors.The decision made tonight is an opportunity to align the policy of enabling and encouraging more active travel with decisions made here, and to send a message to the residents of the city and people watching from further afield that there are deliberate, evidence based decisions being made to improve the city, and increase rates of cycling and walking.I use my bike most days traveling in and around the city, and I still look at the PSPO signs with irritation. Make no mistake they are a psychological barrier to people choosing to travel by bike. It has the potential to instil the sense of wrongdoing despite cycling perfectly legally, cause a change of route possibly reducing safety for the rider, and cause additional conflict with other road users, all of which can lead to the choice being made to not travel by bike. This is the opposite of what we are all trying to achieve with our overarching policies and decisions.I’m not going to stray into whataboutery, but. My understanding is the PSPO exists as a result of concerns of safety, or danger, of antisocial behaviour, of illegal behaviour, caused by moving vehicles. I would welcome a forum to have a serious discussion about these issues and how they affect the city, with all relevant stakeholders. This needs to be done setting aside emotion, any party politics, inflammatory sensationalist rhetoric, and anecdotal evidence, and instead to do the boring work of looking at the available data, be that police reports on the CrashMap website, County Council traffic surveys, or the data available from vehicle activated speed signs we have in the city. If you genuinely care about road safety, road danger, or road violence in the city, there’s an elephant in the room that isn’t being discussed, namely cars, and how they are driven, which are responsible for the vast majority of damage, destruction, injury and death on our roads.In summary, I encourage you all to make the decision to discontinue the PSPO with regard to dangerous cycling and skateboarding, and let’s put behind us the period where choosing a bike as a mode of transport in the city has been derided, and instead choosing the efficient and healthy option is encouraged and celebrated." Alex Mace:"Thank you chair. Good evening councillors.I am here this evening to give my support to scrapping the “dangerous cycling and skateboarding” PSPO across the city centre.PSPOs require that identified restrictions are reasonable, will prevent the activity occurring and are justifiable. I believe that this PSPO fails to satisfy these conditions.The report states that enforcement of the PSPO is difficult as officers can only restrain or stop someone if safe to do so – i.e. the very act of “dangerously” cycling makes it impossible to stop the person responsible. It is a pity that there are no statistics provided on the number of stops enforcement officers would have made, if they had felt able to safely stop the person responsible. So, as it is currently set up, the PSPO cannot prevent the activity occurring.The PSPO restrictions are not reasonable or justifiable because the evidence simply does not support there being a problem with dangerous cycling in the city centre or anywhere else.On average, 3 pedestrians a year in the UK are killed by cyclists. Every one of those events is something to be regretted and reasonable steps considered to prevent a repeat, but… I would hope we can agree that it would be absurd to ban everything that kills 3 or more people per year.We would certainly need to ban cars as nearly 100 times more, 285, pedestrians are killed by cars. Yet, they are allowed in the “pedestrianised” areas of Worcester for 18 hours a day.The city centre PSPO cannot be enforced and does not achieve what it set out to do. This committee should follow the recommendation and not extend the dangerous cycling and skateboarding PSPO.This is not to say that cancelling the PSPO is job done. There are positive changes that can be made that will improve walking and cycling locally for everyone.I want to highlight the “Worcester Women Cycle” project released by Bike Worcester last week for International Women’s Day. This project brought together the stories and experiences of over 100 women who cycle in Worcester, and looked at what some of the challenges are for women cycling in the city, including:

• Aggressive drivers
• Intimidating behaviour
• Drivers shouting abuse
• Catcalling and offensive comments
• Roads that feel dangerous
• Fear of cycling in car traffic

I have personally been abused by a driver for the simple act of cycling the half mile home from school with my children.So my positive suggestion is this: the report, under 5.14, mentions that stakeholders have asked for a “shared space” scheme instead of a PSPO, and I want to endorse that, but also ask that drivers, in addition to cyclists and pedestrians, be included in any shared space messaging. I am a driver, cyclist and pedestrian myself and I think it is entirely reasonable to ask all 3 to be respectful and mindful of others, with the most asked of those who are least vulnerable on the road.Thank you."