The entire borough could be subject to a new legal order which will give the council and police greater powers to curb anti-social behaviour in public places.
A borough wide Public Space Protection Order, PSPO, will prohibit a range of activities including street drinking, going to the toilet in public and spitting.
The order will give council and Thames Valley Police officers the right to issue on-the-spot fines of up to £100 or take rule-breakers to court where fines of up to £1,000 could be handed out for repeated or serious breaches.
An order has currently been in place in nine areas of the borough since the beginning of 2018 to combat anti-social behaviour.
A 28-day consultation is live from today, Friday 4 December, for the proposal to expand and come into force across the whole borough.
The proposed order will prohibit the following activities:
- Continuing to drink alcohol or consume intoxicating substances when required to stop doing so by a police officer or police community support officer
- Not surrendering any alcohol or intoxicating substances in his or her possession when required to do so by a police officer or police community support officer
- Urinating or defecating in a public place except in an area designed for that purpose
- Spitting saliva or any other product from the mouth onto the ground without making any attempt to collect or remove the saliva or product.
Once the consultation period is over the council will examine the feedback and take it into consideration for the final proposal of the order.
Approval will then be sought from cabinet in January 2021.
The council has been working closely with Thames Valley Police who will be the main authority to enforce the order.
Ian Blake, resilience and enforcement team manager, said: “The order has made it easier to target anti-social behaviour in the locations where it is currently in place.
“However, expanding it to cover the whole borough to make it simpler and easier to enforce and for people to understand.
“It will be part of a toolkit to tackle lower level behaviour which has a detrimental effect on the quality of life of residents”
Residents who want to participate in the consultation are encouraged to check the online documents on https://www.slough.gov.uk/consultations.
Views can be submitted by
- emailing comments to to ReportASB@slough.gov.uk
- writing to “Borough wide PSPO consultation”, Housing People Services, Observatory House, Windsor Road, Slough, SL1 2EL.
Consultation ends on January 3, 2021.