How a council error led street drunkenness to soar

Aleksandra Beska, who works at Lady Godiva News, in Broadgate, said problems had become worse in the city centre over the past few months.

A council admin error saw street drunkenness cases soar in Coventry city centre over several months, it has emerged.

The city council failed in June to seek renewal of a public space protection order (PSPO), which enables anti-social behaviour to be tackled even when no crime has been committed. It has only been restored this week.

In documents sent to the council Insp David Mason, of West Midlands Police, said its expiry caused a sharp rise in problems, “most notably in Broadgate”.

Aleksandra Beska, who works at Lady Godiva News, in Broadgate, said things got so bad staff had to hide alcohol to tackle shoplifting, while enduring racial abuse by drinkers who often vomited in the street.

Police Community Support Officers were seen speaking to people in Broadgate, Coventry, after powers came back into force

Insp Mason said that without the PSPO in place officers had to wait for a criminal offence to be committed before they could step in.

“[This] means concerned members of the public have to make more calls requesting police attendance and police officers have to repeatedly attend, which is not good for public safety or a good use of police resources,” he said.

Ms Beska said that because Coventry was city of culture in 2021, "it should be a representative city".

She said: “But the police and the council don’t do much to prevent this kind of behaviour and I can tell that it’s scaring people,” she added.

Joy Adams, head of community safety at Coventry City Council, confirms the powers were now fully back in force and measures had been put in place to ensure there would be no repeat of the problem.

“We don’t want to let that happen again. It can have an impact, the order does help us to nip things in the bud,” she said.

“One of the advantages is it’s made us reflect on the order. We’ve gone out to members of the public and to partners to step back and say, ‘Why do we need the order, why is it important and what else can we do?’ So it’s given us a refresh to look at it properly.”

Joy Adams, head of community safety at Coventry City Council, confirmed the PSPO powers were back in force

Gary Ridley, leader of the Conservative opposition on Coventry council, said allowing the expiration of the PSPO had been an “extraordinary lapse of oversight”.

“Certainly there is a feeling among councillors that it has caused an element of reputational damage," he explained.

“Once word gets around that powers have lapsed, it does encourage people to behave in a way that isn’t appropriate.”