Response 2634502

Response to request for information

Reference

2634502

Response date

27 March 2024

Request

1. Are there circumstances where you wouldn't issue FPN’s for urination for example in specific areas of the borough/types of land that would be excluded? ( I am aware of the Legislative requirements of open to the public and open to the air)
2. Do you have policies or procedures on this - would you be willing to share them?

Response

Response to question 1:

The community safety team have used FPN’ s (littering offence) for people urinating in areas where people frequent previously. This is usually the parks and urban open spaces. We would think very carefully on a case-by-case basis for any other area and whether it would be in the public interest to do so. It is unlikely that we would issue a fpn on private land, remote locations, farmland etc. The main reason for using this enforcement tool was to tackle people congregating in the main urban parks in lock down resulting with some feeling the parks could be used as toilets. These offences were at that time treated as a littering offence.

Since then we have introduced a pspo that creates an offence of urinating in the Public Space Protection Order (pspo) areas so any observed breach can be issued with an fpn.

Response to question 2:

We do not have a specific policy in relation to this offence. Our corporate enforcement policy mentions the response to littering and ASB.