Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

SOCPA: Westminster Council's consultation response

Campaign for Free Assembly | 08.05.2008 10:05 | SOCPA | Repression | London

Key quotes:
"The City Council would propose that consideration be given to prohibiting the use of loudspeakers in Parliament Square and excluding the local authority’s power to grant consent."

"The City Council would propose that the police should consult the City Council before granting consent for a demonstration and for them to be required to have regard to any representations made."

"Parliament Square is one of the most prestigious, visited and photographed squares in the world and is a place the City Council is rightly proud of. The City Council recognises all individuals’ right to peaceful protect, but the extent and manner of such protest can often have a disproportionate detrimental effect on amenity. The south side of Parliament Square is often an eyesore; a blot on the landscape."

Next Campaign for Free Assembly public meeting:
11th May 2-4pm
London School of Economics Connaught House
Room H101
Map:  http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/mapsAndDirections/

Director of Legal and Administrative Services
C T Wilson, LLB., CMA

Please contact: Peter Large
Telephone direct on: (020) 7641 2711
Fax No: (020) 7641 3325
Minicom: (020) 7641 5912
London Dx 2310 Victoria
Our Ref: LAS/PL/SD
Email:  plarge@westminster.gov.uk

Ms Maggie Ainsworth
Home Office
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF

Dear Ms Ainsworth

MANAGING PROTEST AROUND PARLIAMENT

Thank you for giving Westminster City Council an opportunity to respond to this consultation. I am grateful for the extension of time you have allowed and hope these comments may be taken into account.

Westminster City Council is planning and highway authority for Parliament Square and the surrounding area. In addition, the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 conferred upon the City Council the new function of considering applications for the use of loudspeakers in the “designated area”.

From a planning perspective, there are clearly more than public order issues at stake. Given the status of the adjoining World Heritage site and the significance of the buildings adjoining the Square, including Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster, given the Mayors proposals for the Square deriving from the 1997 World Squares for All Masterplan, and given the involvement of the Greater London Authority and Transport for London, Westminster is concerned that:

1. Whatever is proposed by way of legislation must be capable of effective implementation.
2. No requirement for signs or structures should be required in or around the site to give effect to the regulations.
3. The likely changes to highway layout, use and function need to be reflected in any Orders or Regulations which may be made, so consideration should be given to when any new provisions come into effect. The new scheme is aimed for completion by 2011.
4. Given the above, further discussion with the City Council, the Greater London Authority, the Police and Security Services seems essential.
5. Given the conservation area status of the square, which is also a protected historic garden, the adjoining World Heritage Site and the surrounding listed buildings and statues the importance of preserving and enhancing the character of the Square needs to be reflected in the legislation.

As highway authority, the City Council has been unsuccessful in the past in seeking to use its highway papers to prevent obstruction of the pavement area on the south side of Parliament Square. The City Council failed in its application to the High Court for an injunction against Mr Haw to restrain the obstruction of the highway. Highway legislation will not provide an adequate means of managing protest in the Square.

It is an offence to operate a loudspeaker in the designated area. However, there are exemptions, one of which applies where consent has been granted by the local authority under section 62 of the Control of Pollution Act. The City Council has been called upon to consider whether such consent should be granted, and this has given rise to numerous difficulties in practice.

In the event that these provisions are to remain in force, the procedure for granting loudspeaker consents should be reviewed. Applications are considered under the Control of Pollution Act. The Act provides little guidance on the procedures to adopt, unlike many other consent regimes enshrined in legislation, which helpfully particularise the steps to be taken before, during and after consent is given. The procedure is not a suitable one in the context of balancing the rights of peaceful protest against the rights of others, and nor is it suitable for considering requests which are in effect for “permanent” loudspeaker use.

The City Council would like to see the following clarified in the Control of Pollution Act –

• the length of consent, or at least confirmation that its duration is a matter of discretion for the local authority. (The Act clearly envisages these types of consent to be temporary in nature, yet Mr Haw has been present in the square for some years and is likely to seek consent to use his loudspeaker for some time to come)
• the consultation period of 21 days is too short
• the Act is silent as to any power to revoke
• power to for local authority to exempt charitable organisations from requiring consent. (The City Council has been required to process several applications by organisations intending to lay wreaths on Remembrance Day parades)

The City Council would propose that the police be given specific power to seize equipment, i.e. banners, placards, loudspeakers etc. used in connection with an unlawful demonstration/in breach of the conditions of consent to hold a demonstration/use a loudspeaker.


The City Council has received complaints about noise nuisance from those who work in the Houses of Parliament and has been called to attend meetings at the Palace of Westminster to discuss the on-going problems associated with the demonstrations in the square opposite. The City Council would propose that consideration be given to prohibiting the use of loudspeakers in Parliament Square and excluding the local authority’s power to grant consent .

If the use of loudspeakers in Parliament Square is to be retained, the City Council would propose that responsibility for granting such consent and enforcement of such consent should be passed to the police. This would remove the current blurring of responsibilities between the police and the City Council.

In the event that the City Council is to continue to have responsibility to grant and enforce consents under the Control of Pollution Act, we would propose that authorised officers of the City Council should have power to seize a loudspeaker used without consent or in breach of the terms and conditions imposed upon consent.

The City Council would propose that the police should consult the City Council before granting consent for a demonstration and for them to be required to have regard to any representations made.

Parliament Square is one of the most prestigious, visited and photographed squares in the world and is a place the City Council is rightly proud of. The City Council recognises all individuals’ right to peaceful protect, but the extent and manner of such protest can often have a disproportionate detrimental effect on amenity. The south side of Parliament Square is often an eyesore; a blot on the landscape. The City Council would propose that the police should be given the power to impose reasonable conditions upon consent in order to minimise the adverse effect on amenity.


Yours sincerely


Deputy Director of Legal Services

Campaign for Free Assembly
- e-mail: freeassembly@riseup.net
- Homepage: http://freeassembly.notlong.com/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech