A skateboarder has been fined for breaching our Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) in Hemel Hempstead town centre.
Ross Hardy, of Commons Lane, Hemel Hempstead, pleaded guilty at St Albans Magistrates’ Court on April 14, 2021 to breaching the order.
He was witnessed by police skateboarding through Marlowes on September 4, 2020, which along with cycling, spitting, urinating and defecating is prohibited under the PSPO.
Hardy was issued a fixed penalty notice for breach of the order but no payment was made. He was subsequently ordered by the court to pay a total of £194 – a fine of £75, a £34 victim surcharge and costs of £85.
Our Enforcement Officers, who are assisted by Hertfordshire Constabulary, Dacorum Safer Neighbourhoods Team, regularly patrol the town centre. Since the PSPO was introduced on 29 July 2019, we have issued 50 warnings and 21 fixed penalty notices.
Emma Walker, Group Manager for Environmental and Community Protection, said: “This prosecution sends a deterrent to those breaching the town centre PSPO, which was brought in as a response to complaints about anti-social cycling. There is an alternative route to avoid the pedestrianised part of Marlowes by diverting along Waterhouse Street.”
PSPOs were introduced by the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 and are designed to allow councils to deal with a particular nuisance or problem behaviour in a particular area (a public space) that is damaging to the local community’s quality of life. Failure to comply with a PSPO could result in a fixed penalty notice fine or prosecution.
0 Comments