Noisy street preachers and buskers facing ban
BIRMINGHAM could place noise injunctions on religious street preachers and buskers after a number were handed warning letters.
Council officers issued 70 community protection notices between August and December 2022 to those who persisted in anti-social behaviour.
But such is the scale of noisy buskers in the city centre, the council admits businesses “had mostly given up complaining”.
Police even made four arrests for anti-social behaviour in the centre.
It comes as residents who live in the Rotunda and New Street complained about preachers, ‘TikTok entertainers’, and buskers.
A consultation in 2018 of businesses, and residents in the city centre, showed 66% considered the noise levels on the streets from amplifiers to be unacceptable – over half said amplified noise had “affected their customers and had caused their
complaints”. One High Street retailer told the council: “There have been Saturdays where I have not been able to hear and speak to customers or talk on the telephone.
“In fact I generally have to come downstairs to take important work phone calls.”
A resident who lives at New Street
said: “There has been an unbelievable increase in buskers and street performers using ‘high calibre’ amplification systems, the likes which are to be found in venues and festivals, not high streets.”
A council report noted: “Initially, environmental health responded by advising people they were using speakers outside residential property, then asking people to move and turn down their speakers and this worked for a short period. Often the volume was reduced until the officer left and was then turned up again.
“People who were displaced were replaced by a new person or indeed people returned the same day or the next day causing the same problem.
“Environmental health started to issue warning letters as well as serving abatement notices on people on the street – by this stage officers were finding their interventions were leading to many amplification users abusing them and turning up the volume.”
The council has a public space protection order (PSPO) in place in New Street, Temple Street, and High Stree aimed at stopping behaviour that makes life a misery for the local community.
But the council admits there has “not been a good level of compliance and often our officers are responding to complaints both day and evenings. This is costing the city a lot in resources.”