00:00There is a problem in some city and town centres insofar as you have a large number of young men
00:06primarily who are intimidating insofar as they ride electric bikes, probably most of which, if not all, are probably illegal
00:17insofar as that they are adapted in such a way as that they can go with the speed limit that
00:22they're allowed.
00:23So, of course, this can become sort of intimidating. What also goes with this is the sort of the fact
00:28that many of them wear face masks, which, of course, makes them sort of seem anonymous and all the more
00:32threatening as a consequence.
00:34Balaclavas have become part of a wider debate about how towns and cities tackle intimidation and antisocial behaviour.
00:42Nottingham is considering a targeted restriction that would let authorised officers intervene when a face covering is believed to be
00:52hiding someone's identity for criminal or intimidating behaviour.
00:57It's not a ban on ordinary face coverings and exemptions would protect religious, cultural, health, work, weather and personal safety
01:06reasons.
01:07What is perhaps driving this trend is social media that sort of they do this to sort of get clicks.
01:14So and of course, the sort of the more outrageous behaviour, the better.
01:18Of course, what we've seen sort of when holiday starts, I've seen this in town centres where you get sort
01:22of mobs turning up and sort of storming a shop, if that's the right expression,
01:26which, of course, means that those shops lose items, perhaps through shoplifting.
01:30And of course, what it makes is the high streets threatening places or places that sort of people do not
01:36want to go to.
01:38And indeed, Nottingham City Council, they are sort of thinking as a consequence of a survey that was carried out
01:44by Nottinghamshire Police Constabulary,
01:47which showed that sort of people sort of didn't like a number of things, one of which was face coverings.
01:52So they're thinking about extending the law whereby people can be arrested.
01:56Now, of course, what happens as a consequence of this?
01:58Well, who knows? But of course, I suppose it's to try and sort of deter people from doing it in
02:01the first place.
02:02Between June 2025 and June 2026, more than 180 city centre incidents involved face coverings or balaclavas.
02:12Around three quarters happened in Nottingham's Old Market Square.
02:17Under the proposal, police or council officers could require a covering to be removed
02:23where they reasonably be believed it's being used to conceal identity for crime,
02:28antisocial behaviour, intimidation, harassment, alarm or distress.
02:33Public spaces protection orders are already available to councils across England and Wales,
02:39but restrictions must be evidence-based, necessary and proportionate.
02:44But that matters, because the Nottingham proposal is deliberately narrow.
02:50What I would say is, of course, there's a degree of sensitivity required here,
02:53because, of course, if you sort of put people into the category of sort of being sort of criminals,
02:58then, of course, that sort of sticks for a long time.
03:00And, of course, there is a sort of wider context to all of this,
03:03that sort of young people, of course, who perhaps are sort of unemployed,
03:06maybe sort of, you know, few prospects as have ever been employed.
03:09But undoubtedly, you know, for normal law-abiding people, particularly sort of families,
03:14yeah, they don't want to go into environments where they sort of do feel sort of frightened.
03:18And the fact that, you know, we hear this in sort of many ways,
03:21so people on electric bikes who steal the photo, steal not photos rather,
03:25steal cameras out of your hands, then, of course, that becomes a sort of a problem.
03:29And, of course, it means that sort of there are parts of this sort of the high street
03:32which become effectively no-go zones, which is no good for retailers,
03:36because, of course, if they're no longer getting the footfall,
03:38the consequence for them is they no longer make money, you know,
03:41allied to which, of course, if they're losing money as a consequence of the shoplifting,
03:45then, you know, it makes their sort of their continuous sort of presence questionable.
03:49And, of course, they also withdraw.
03:50And, indeed, you know, I've been into sort of too many sort of high streets
03:53where you see sort of a number of security guards on shops
03:56for what would be regarded as low sort of value items.
03:59So it is a problem in the sort of the round.
04:01Now, of course, where does all this take us?
04:03Well, of course, it's about sort of the judicial system,
04:06perhaps how you sort of arrest and deal with these people,
04:09which, of course, brings me to sort of Andy Burnham.
04:12Inevitably, you know, he's the man who people are hoping will indeed do this.
04:15But, of course, as I always say, as somebody who's interested in both politics and economics,
04:20it's going to take a lot of money to do this.
04:22And, of course, in the places where deprivation is greatest
04:25and perhaps where that sort of sense of hopelessness is worst,
04:28then it's going to take a lot of money to sort of do that.
04:31But, you know, we have to do something.
04:33And indeed, the sort of the recent events in Cleveland in particular,
04:36where sort of young men, they sort of take high-powered cars,
04:39it's a sort of, you know, it's a slippery slope into sort of a more serious crime.
04:43So, yeah, now is the time for action.
04:45But, hey, we sort of, this is, I say that, more is sort of hope than expectation
04:49because it's a very, very difficult one to sort of reverse,
04:52particularly where sort of there's been some, you know, long-term unemployment
04:55in northern towns, which, of course, rely traditionally on manufacturing.
04:59Big, big problem.
05:00Well, responses are being reviewed before the proposal
05:04goes to Nottingham City Council's Executive Board in September.
05:08If approved, police expect the restriction to be introduced
05:12before the end of the year.
05:14There isn't a lot ofнем uplara.
05:14But it's one way to apply here.
05:14It's what we do.
05:14There's an appliance where algo двиг works and things like that.
