"P.O." in DPPO means

something else entirely

It seems as though there is one law for the rich and one for the poor as far as tackling drinking on the streets of Boston is concerned.
For some time a group called Boston North West Action Group has been pressing for a Designated Public Protection Order to curb public drinking in their part of town - Witham Bank West - and have already been told there was not enough evidence that the DPPO in force in the town centre had caused "displacement of the problem to other areas" – so there was no case for extending the DPPO to their particular ward.
That was despite five of them collecting more than fifty bags of alcohol based litter from the West Bank of the Witham alone during this year’s Big Boston Clean Up.
However, they appear to have been undeterred, and have been pursuing their campaign.
Now, in clear sign that democracy in Boston is long dead, a posting on the Boston Bypass Independents’ blog, reinforced by a letter in the Boston Standard, has told them to go and boil their heads.
Councillor Ramonde Newell, the borough’s portfolio holder for community safety, tells campaigners that whilst drinking and rowdiness is a continuing issue on Witham Bank West and other areas, he understands that there may be a request to extend Boston’s DPPO to this area and others.
He says that while the council will examine and consider any further formal requests there will be a significant cost to budget for.
When an extension to cover the Witham Bank area was first considered over two years ago, the police indicated then that they did not have the officers and resources, to effectively enforce a larger area – and that was it.
We wonder whether the council would be so supine if the cops suddenly turned round and said they didn’t have the cash to investigate crime … and we think not.
Councillor Newell then treats us to a lecture on what a DPPO is and is not.
In a nutshell it is not worth the paper it is written on.
“Those drinking alcohol in the street are NOT committing an offence, unless they have been asked to stop doing so by an officer, and do not comply. The DPPO does NOT create an alcohol free zone,” Councillor Newell tells us.
Contrast that with his silence when one of our local papers trumpeted:- “IT'S OFFICIAL – the sight of people boozing on Boston's park benches and street corners will soon be consigned to the history books. At a meeting of Boston Borough Council's cabinet, members voted to introduce new laws banning the drinking of alcohol outside licensed premises throughout Boston's town centre.”
Councillor Newell was quoted in that report, and made no mention of the toothlessness of the DPPO at the time.
Clearly, it now suits him to tell us, because it means saving money at the expense of the feelings of the taxpayers.
We propose a DPPO of our own.
The acronym stands for “Daft Politicians Prohibition Order,” and would apply to all the wards in the borough currently represented by the BBI.
It would make it an offence to spout nonsense or ride roughshod over the electorate, punishable by loss of office. As a result, we would expect the BBI to vanish from the local political scene in very short order.


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