Antisocial behaviour rules proposed for parts of Preston

Tough new rules – which would see fines of £100 dished out to those who breach them – could be introduced in parts of Preston to tackle the antisocial behaviour found to have been blighting the lives of law-abiding locals.

Preston City Council is planning to introduce seven strict regulations in sections of the Plungington and Deepdale wards – including an effective ban on street drinking.   

That practice is one of several identified as having a “detrimental impact on the community” in the area.  Others include urinating in public, threatening and abusive behaviour, public use of illegal drugs and the discarding of drug-taking paraphernalia,  and obstructing places to which people need access. 

Evidence of the problems – generated from an informal consultation and including information provided by the police and the council itself – persuaded the authority’s cabinet to give the go-ahead to the first steps needed to introduce a public space protection order (PSPO) across the affected area.

A full-scale consultation will shortly be carried out into plans that would see the rules – enforceable both by authorised council officers and the police – brought into force.  These would include a requirement for people to stop swigging alcohol in the street – and hand over their entire drink – if asked to do so by an officer.

Bans would also be introduced on going to the toilet in public and using “intoxicating substances”, along with a catch-all prohibition of acting in “an antisocial manner likely to cause harassment, alarm, or distress” to others.

Persistent breaches of the rules would lead to fixed penalty notices of £100.

If ultimately approved, the PSPO – which would incorporate routes including stretches of Plungington Road, Blackpool Road and Ripon Street, along with Moor Park Avenue and St. George’s Road  – would follow on from two others issued in Preston since late 2024, covering the city centre and parts of the Fishwick and Frenchwood, and St. Matthew’s wards.

The orders introduced in those areas also outlawed the discarding of used condoms in any public place – an act which is not explicitly referred to in the one planned for Plungington and Deepdale.

Preston City Council was approached for comment about the new PSPO.