Agenda item

The Portfolio Holder for Area North, Licensing and Environmental Health advised that the existing Public Space Protection Orders were due to expire very shortly and it was important that they were extended for a further 3 years.  He proposed that they be agreed by Members and this was seconded by Cllr Mike Best.

In response to questions from Members, the Specialist for Environmental Health and the Director for Service Delivery advised:

·         The Equality Impact Assessment had not been updated since 2020.

·         There were outreach workers to help people with street drinking issues or begging and they were able to refer people to schemes to support them away from those lifestyle choices.

·         There were drug and alcohol centres in both Yeovil and Taunton and SDAS staff were on hand in the A&E department in Yeovil District Hospital on Friday and Saturday nights to help vulnerable patients.

·         The PSPO extension areas previously agreed were based upon evidence presented of street drinking and begging at the time of the extension report.

·         There were no statistics currently available to confirm the effectiveness of the previous PSPO extensions. 

During discussion, the following points were made:

·         The Equality Impact Assessment should be updated in light of the Covid pandemic and the current cost of living crisis as there could be different interventions.

·         Vulnerable adults may not read any PSPO warning letters sent to them.

·         Councillors were aware of the excellent assistance provided by the housing team in assisting homeless and other vulnerable people.

·         Welcome the proposals if they helped towards the public feeling safe in the town centre and the police should help to enforce the orders.

·         SSDC could have employed and trained enforcement officers to help with compliance of the PSPOs in the town centre.

·         People with drug and alcohol issues should be helped and supported to ensure they had better opportunities available to them and not be side-lined. 

·         Cuts in funding to the Somerset Drug and Alcohol Service had not helped.

The Vice Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee thanked the Specialist for Environmental Health for answering the questions raised during their meeting and asked if it was possible to collect statistics to prove the PSPO extension areas had been successful or if the problem had moved to another area outside the PSPO area.

At the conclusion of the debate, Members unanimously confirmed the time extensions to the Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) in Yeovil as recommended in the report.