A request to extend police powers to help tackle drink-fuelled anti-social behaviour throughout Tavistock has been rejected by the town council.
However Tavistock Town Council would be in favour of extending the ban beyond the Meadows park to also cover the town centre as well as the sports pitches at Crowndale, where there have been problems with broken glass.
The council was giving its views as part of a public consultation on expanding the current public spaces protection order (PSPO) proposed by community police team leader Sergeant Tom Ottley to combat an increase in anti-social behaviour such as vandalism and drink-fuelled abuse.
The order, which is up for renewal in November, is issued by West Devon Borough Council – which makes the decision on whether to do so and what geographical area it would cover. It would give police greater powers to address anti-social behaviour.
These powers include seizing alcohol and imposing a dispersal order on miscreants to stay out of town for 24 hours, on pain of being prosecuted and fined £1,000 if they break the ban.
An existing PSPO has been effective in reducing anti-social behaviour in Tavistock Meadows park. However, Sgt Ottley says that this has led to anti-social behaviour being displaced into the town centre with regular verbal abuse from people drinking and several incidents of arson in the public toilets on Bedford Square.
Town Councillor Andy Hutton said: “The police request to cover every street in the town with protection orders is completely over the top. They want to do the same in Okehampton. They suggest there are anti-social problems with people causing a nuisance in places like Down Park Crescent, for instance, but they have provided no evidence of this. If there really is a problem in every street requiring police powers to be increased, then it would actually be down to central government to implement.
Tavistock Town Council issued a statement saying: “The budget and policy committee response to the consultation was unable to recommend support for a public spaces protection order for the whole of the town on the evidence provided, whilst reiterating support for measures to be introduced in those areas with an evidence base – the town centre, Crowndale and the Meadows.”
The PSPOs are designed to be targeted and address areas with particular problems with anti-social behaviour which is affecting residents in the long-term.
Neighbourhood policing team leader Sgt Tom Ottley wants the whole of Tavistock to be included in the new PSPO. He said a whole-town approach meant police could seize alcohol and disperse people wherever in the town people were causing trouble.
He sees this as crucial to giving the police the clout they need to counter an increasing problem of anti-social behaviour in Okehampton and Tavistock.
Okehampton does not currently have a PSPO, although it does have CCTV installed to address ongoing problems with vandalism. New PSPOs will be introduced on November 14 for three years.
