A council has been criticised for banning leather footballs in an absurd move under powers that permit local authorities to issue diktats banning unkempt gardens, loud TVs and even messy chalk markings.
Sefton Council in Merseyside used its powers to impose a community protection notice (CPN) on a local school following a considerable number of complaints raised by residents.
The directive prohibited the use of heavy leather footballs and insisted that pupils only use light flyway or foam footballs instead.
The order is among a number of strange CPNs imposed by councils across England in recent years that have been unearthed by campaign group the Manifesto Club, which challenges what it calls ‘the hyper-regulation of public spaces’.
It said the ‘cowboy powers’ should be scrapped, arguing that the majority of CPNs were unnecessary or could be pursued in other ways.
A newspaper outlet reported that the campaigners found that nearly 26,000 community protection warnings (CPWs) and CPNs were issued across England last year, up from 14,000 in 2014/15.
CPWs are first issued by councils to alleged perpetrators of anti-social behaviour, and this can be elevated to a CPN if the behaviour persists unabated.
The community powers can be used by the police, local authorities and housing associations that are permitted to do so by councils.
They were brought in as part of a raft of measures to replace anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) in 2014, but unlike ASBOs, CPNs don’t have to be approved by a court.
More than 200 councils issued the orders last year, with 35 sending out notices for messy or overgrown gardens.
Other notices included 10 CPNs for feeding birds, 23 for begging, 16 for neighbour disputes and 14 for barking dogs.
Mendip Council imposed a notice in 2020/21 for someone for chalk markings, said to have caused alarm and distress.
In all, almost 48,000 CPNs have been issued since 2014. Breaching a CPN is a criminal offence punishable by a fine of up to £2,500.
The most prolific councils were Durham, which issued 819 orders, and Nottingham, which issued 543.
On the football ban, Sefton Council said it only imposed the ban on leather balls for a few months, after which the successful order was lifted.
Some CPNs were also used to target serious problems such as domestic abuse, drugs and violence. But the Manifesto Club claims using community powers in this way risks ‘trivialis(ing) criminal activity’ and prevents police from properly investigating potential crimes.
It was a huge mistake to give councils powers because they just can’t be trusted to exercise those powers fairly.
We now have all these trumped-up mini-dictators who believe that they’re so important that they’re crazed with power over the people that they serve.
They’re paid by the taxpayer, therefore, they should be questionable over their decisions.
I’m guessing that the people who are living close to this school complained about the noise the children were making, so why on earth did they buy a house next to a school? If they wanted a quiet life they should have bought a house in the suburbs. The world in Sefton has truly gone mad, just like its Council.
This order was written, presumably by someone who doesn’t like to have fun and evidently has no idea what a football looks like, and they clearly have ‘Veys haff veys off making you obey’.
Well, there goes the future of football and children enjoying themselves.
We are now a communist country. Freedom is over and control in every facet of our lives is in place.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 