Rochester station car park at centre of Medway Council public space protection order zone blunder
17:47, 15 October 2020
updated: 18:08, 15 October 2020
Rules to curb anti-social behaviour have been branded unfit for purpose after a car park was split in half thanks to a blunder by council officers.
Police have powers to ban drinking on one side of the new station car park in Rochester after the boundary was agreed by Medway Council.
KMTV's Phil Wellbrook reports on Rochester's alcohol control zone
Yet just a few yards across the site in Corporation Street, the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) suddenly stops right in the middle of the car park.
Councillors passed the plans unanimously at a meeting last week but it has sparked debate about a lack of consultation or attention to detail.
Ward member Cllr Alex Paterson (Lab) says the council used almost 20-year-old maps to draw up boundaries to renew the zones which were created when the car park and station had not been built.
He says it means the zones are already "out of date and not fit for purpose".
The PSPO does not place a blanket ban on drinking but means a culprit causing anti-social behaviour can be stopped from drinking by police, a police community support officer or council officer.
It grants the authorities greater powers to deal with alcohol-fuelled anti-social behaviour.
Cllr Paterson says the zone, which he complained he was unaware of and had not been informed about as ward councillor, smacked of "a box ticking exercise".
"The maps it’s been drawn on actually date back before the station was built," Cllr Paterson said.
"They messed up and nobody noticed. The council will say they've carried out a consultation but there wasn't a single email went out to me or other ward councillors.
"More contact was made with outside bodies than elected councillors."
The consultation on these plans were open over the summer on the Medway Council website.
It only managed to return 89 responses across the four towns – an average of just 22 per town centre which Cllr Paterson says "is totally inadequate".
Cllr Paterson says it the incident points to a "wider issue" within Medway about a lack of accountability regarding consultations and listening to voters.
"They're a box ticking exercise rather than a genuine attempt to listen to people. Putting partisan politics aside there's a good chance I may know something about Rochester that an officer at Gun Wharf doesn't.
"A starting point should be have you or any residents got an issue with this? It's democratic accountability."
Cllr Paterson said Labour colleagues felt compelled to vote for the zones to remain despite the blunder but called to "revisit urgently" the correct boundaries to make it "more relevant" to the current situation.
He pointed to covering the Rochester Riverside development, changing numbers of licensed premises in the town since the zones were instated in 2003 meaning it was "a different world" now compared to their inception.
Medway Council says it did speak to community groups about the plans and received overwhelming support for them.
But the issue of the boundary placement was not raised.
"They're a box ticking exercise rather than a genuine attempt to listen to people"
Conservative ward councillor Stuart Tranter said he felt the concerns were "a fuss about nothing" but that the boundary issue could be looked at if it was needed to assist police.
"I'm not sure where they're coming from on the issue and there may be some more important points to be made," Cllr Tranter said.
"The order is another tool to help police. In isolation it's far from the most important thing on my radar.
"I'm working with the traders and pubs to survive in a pandemic while keeping people safe.
"Police will deal with anti-social behaviour whether there's an alcohol control zone or not.
“During this process, the police were consulted, as were the Safer Medway Partnership, Medway's Licensed Victuallers' Association. These are organisations that understand the issues incredibly well, in fact in some ways better than I do as the local councillor.
“I can’t recall being consulted myself on it if I’m honest. But I’m very aware of the existence of it and if I felt it was important I would be dealing with it. I don't have to wait for someone to ask for my opinion.
"This isn't one of the biggest issues facing constituents right now and I'm quite relaxed about it.
"But yes let's have a look and see if we need to make some more changes."
