Time to make spaces safe

THERE has been much discussion on Public Space Protection Orders in the city centre.

I have not, and do not, support the fining of people simply because they are homeless and neither do any colleagues I have spoken to. Our city has spent tens of millions of pounds in the teeth of crippling austerity to support people without a home. Anything else is a dereliction of duty.

It is deeply saddening therefore that a crucial conversation about anti-social behaviour in the highest crime wards in Manchester has become framed, deliberately by some, around homelessness, as if these acts were primarily committed by people who do not have accommodation.

This is not the case and the combining of the two issues helps neither those without a permanent roof over their heads, nor the victims of crime.

Indeed, in many cases it is people without a home to go back to who are themselves victims of acts of selfishness and cruelty.

That is why it is vital that we challenge anti-social behaviour.

I welcome the discussion now taking place about the best way to do that. The council cannot retreat from its responsibility to make our streets, parks and public spaces safe and to challenge those who would make the lives of their fellow citizens miserable.

If we do, the consequence will be gated and barred communities for those who pay for it and public squalor for the rest of us. Coun Sam Wheeler, Piccadilly ward