City anti-social behaviour powers set to be expanded

Council bosses plan to extend wide-ranging rules to tackle anti-social behaviour in the middle of Leicester across the whole city.

The authority introduced a public spaces protection order (PSPO) in the city centre in April 2025 which gave wardens the power to issue £100 fines for a range of behaviour including aggressive begging, street drinking and dangerous riding of electric bikes and scooters.

The council said it would consult residents this month on bringing in another PSPO giving wardens enforcement powers in the city's outer neighbourhoods.

The new rules could come into force by September, according to Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby.

Soulsby said six new wardens would be recruited over the coming weeks to enforce the rules across the city.

He said the neighbourhoods PSPO would be used to address issues like those in the centre but could also be used to deal with problems like anti-social use of fireworks.

"What we are doing now is strengthening the team to ensure the enforcement is working," Soulsby told the BBC.

"We will have 11 people on the ground and that should be a real presence and real deterrent.

"We are looking beyond the city centre. We always said the city centre was the highest priority but not the only priority."

The city centre PSPO also restricts the use of amplified speakers in the city centre and the placing of temporary structures - tables and gazebos - in the highway.

The council said between the start of April 2025 and April 2026 wardens issued 14 fines in total.

All but one of those was for the use of a temporary structure on the highway without prior permission.

Political campaigners and street preachers have expressed concern the rules could be used to suppress free speech.

However Soulsby has insisted the PSPO is to prevent nuisance behaviour rather than hinder protest or worship.

He said the small number of fines was evidence the PSPO was working.

"We have said right from the start, the whole point wasn't to issue fines," he said. "It was to make a difference to the city centre.

"The PSPO has done that and the fines are very much the last resort."

Liberal Democrat city councillor Zuffar Haq said: "It [the city centre PSPO] has helped over the last twelve months but there is still work left to be done - particularly about the electric bikes that speed through the city centre.

"Lots of elderly and vulnerable people still struggle with those bikes speeding past them.

"There needs to be more enforcement of that. Not one fine has been issued for that."

Listen to BBC Radio Leicester on Sounds and follow BBC Leicester on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.