Skateboarder fined for breaching Hemel Hempstead town centre Public Spaces Protection Order

Dacorum Borough Council has prosecuted a skateboarder for breaching a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) in Hemel Hempstead town centre.

Ross Hardy of Commons Lane, Hemel Hempstead, pleaded guilty at St Albans Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, April 14, to breaching the order.

He was witnessed by police skateboarding through the Marlowes on 4 September 2020, which along with cycling, spitting, urinating and defecating is prohibited under the PSPO.

Hardy was issued a fixed penalty notice for breach of the order but no payment was made. He was subsequently ordered by the court to pay a total of £194 - a fine of £75, a £34 victim surcharge and costs of £85.

Dacorum Borough Council Enforcement Officers who are assisted by the Hertfordshire Constabulary, Dacorum Safer Neighbourhoods Team, regularly patrol the town centre.

Since the PSPO was introduced on July 29, 2019, 50 warnings and 21 fixed penalty notices have been issued.

Emma Walker, Dacorum Borough Council's Group Manager for Environmental and Community Protection said: “This prosecution sends a deterrent to those breaching the town centre PSPO.

"This PSPO was brought in as a response to members and residents complaints about antisocial cycling.

"There is an alternative route to avoid the pedestrianized part of the Marlowes by diverting along Waterhouse Street.”

PSPOs were introduced by the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 and are designed to allow councils to deal with a particular nuisance or problem behaviour in a particular area (a public space) that is damaging to the local community's quality of life.

Failure to comply with a PSPO could result in a fixed Penalty Notice fine or prosecution.