Plan to criminalise rough sleeping in Newport city centre dropped

Proposals to ban rough sleepers from Newport city centre in Wales have been dropped at the last moment following an outcry from charities and human rights campaigners.

Councillors had put together a scheme that could have left homeless people facing criminal prosecution and a fine of up to £1,000 if they were caught sleeping in the open air.

The Labour-led authority had come under heavy pressure to ditch the plans with critics claiming they went against the city’s proud history of social justice and were being introduced to improve the way visitors to a new multi-million pound shopping centre perceived the city.

At a meeting of the council on Tuesday night, the Labour cabinet put forward a scheme aimed at making the city safer but in which the plan to ban homelessness was left out. It did include a measure designed to stop “aggressive begging”.

Bob Poole, cabinet member for regulatory functions, said there was a balance to be struck between protecting people who visit the city centre and caring for the most vulnerable. “We can’t criminalise [homeless] people,” he said.

Members of the Tory group argued unsuccessfully that the ban should go ahead, claiming that the measure was needed for the safety of the general public. The group leader, Matthew Evans, said: “We are not a third world country and this is not the 18^th century. Nobody should be sleeping or begging on the streets of the Newport or anywhere else in the UK.”

He said he and other councillors had been taken on a tour of the city to look at some of the places where anti-social behaviour happens. Evans said they had to walk through “needles, excrement, vomit” and added: “I was shocked by what I saw. It’s unacceptable. People are afraid.”

Newport would have been the first city in the UK to ban rough sleeping. Its scrutiny committee had backed the introduction of a public space protection order that would have allowed criminal proceedings to be launched against people who had been offered a place to stay but still chose to sleep rough.

Before the meeting homeless people in Newport spoke out against the proposal. John, 38, said: “It’s bang out of order. We’re just going to get pushed out of the city centre into other areas that aren’t as safe.” John has been in Newport for five years having left his home in Bradford, West Yorkshire, because of “family problems”. He came to south Wales because he had once worked in the steelworks there. Now he sleeps in a car park.

“It’s been a tough few weeks,” he said. “Your sleeping bag gets damp, you get damp and cold through. It takes you all day to warm up. We’re not sleeping out for fun. We do it because there is nowhere else to go.”

There were mixed views from shoppers at the new Friars Walk complex. “You see some of them begging and drinking on the streets,” said Mark Jones, a 34-year-old fitness instructor. “Newport has a bit of an image problem. It needs to smarten up and I think that includes sorting out the homeless people.”

Joan Harris, 52, said it was a shame that there were so many shops and flats empty in the city centre that could provide accommodation for the likes of John. “Why can’t they open them up? We hear they are all owned by foreign investors who just leave them empty for years. That seems an awful waste to me.”

What made the proposed move all the more galling to many was Newport’s proud history of social justice. The charity Liberty described it as an “affront” to the legacy of the Chartists, who marched on Newport in the 19th century to fight for the rights of the impoverished working class.

Rosie Brighouse, a legal officer for Liberty said: “These proposals make a mockery of Newport’s Chartist legacy. For the sake of a new shopping centre, the council is pouring its energies into criminalising the most vulnerable in the city.

“This won’t house people, move them on, or help resolve their homelessness in any other way – it will simply fine them for their extreme poverty.”

Staff at the homelessness charity the Wallich have helped 267 people in Newport over the past year and its workers believe on average there are about 20 people – mostly men in their 30s – sleeping rough in the city centre.