Windsor council’s war on the homeless: Now it will impose fines up to £1,000

Last Updated: February 12, 2018By

A rough sleeper in Windsor [Image: Geoffrey Swaine/Rex/Shutterstock].

Windsor and Maidenhead Council has done it again.

After trying to get the police to arrest homeless people under the Vagrancy Act so they won’t be on the streets during the Royal Wedding, now the council is imposing fines of up to £1,000 on their existence.

The police told Conservative council leader Simon Dudley to jog on, so the council has devised a way of attacking the homeless all by itself.

Environmental Services will impose the fines – starting at an unaffordable £100 (dropping to an equally-unaffordable £50 for early payment) and rising to an unbelievable £1,000 for each almost-inevitable non-payment.

All to make Windsor look – what? Nicer? Cleaner? Tidier? – than it really is.

And it won’t make a blind bit of difference, will it?

Because of Mr Dudley’s behaviour, activists were said to be organising busloads of homeless people to come and line the streets during the Royal Wedding.

In any case, cheats like that guy never prosper.

The stain of his attack on people who are already living in severe hardship – possibly because of his policies – will follow him forever.

Like a bad smell.

Windsor council has been accused of punishing people for being homeless after plans emerged to fine rough sleepers £100 as part of a new “homelessness support strategy”.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead will impose public space protection orders (PSPOs) banning aggressive or proactive begging, requests for money, leaving bedding and belongings in a public area and urination or defecation in town centres in the area, including Windsor, Maidenhead, Ascot and Eton.

Breaches would lead to a £100 fixed penalty notice, which would be cut to £50 for early payment, but offenders could face a summary conviction and a £1,000 fine if they fail to pay. The measures would be enforced by community wardens equipped with stab-proof vests and body cameras.

Source: Windsor council to impose fines on rough sleepers | Society | The Guardian


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8 Comments

  1. Dez February 12, 2018 at 5:46 pm - Reply

    Yet another Con leading from the front pleb bashing….well done…..reminding the Conservative voters of Windsor that you are on the job If the Council actually did their job and provided accommodation for probably many souls cast on the streets by acts of making vulnerable people homeless. Are their escalating fines built up to the final ultimatum of jailing the repeat offenders who cannot pay their ridiculous fines…brainless morons lacking any common sense they are homeless where are they going to get money to pay this stupid fine……just moves the problem to someother Councils patch until they finally hit a Labour council who actually look after all walks of society..

  2. 4foxandhare February 12, 2018 at 7:02 pm - Reply

    How ridiculous is that? Has the Windsor Counsel mad any suggestions how homeless people can afford to pay a £100 fine, never mind the £1,000 that will be imposed on them for non-payment? Perhaps the non-payers will sent to prison where they’ll at least be fed and out of the elements.

  3. aunty1960 February 12, 2018 at 7:08 pm - Reply

    Good Luck to them, if they had a thousand pounds on them they would not be sleeping in the streets

    But when council realise they cannot get a thousand pound from them maybe they can find a nice warm place for them to stay with heating and food and occupational work and a nice room to kip in even if they have to share.

    Bloody Ridiculous Have not got the compassion of Dark Ages and medieval parishes

    Elizabeth I Poor Law

  4. J Edington February 12, 2018 at 7:30 pm - Reply

    The trouble with this demonstration of the homeless on the waters’ wedding day is that, however many people turn up, even if the police let them near, the media will not cover it. The BBC will have another of their convenient blind spots.

  5. Roland Laycock February 12, 2018 at 9:26 pm - Reply

    What a bright idea fine people that have no money, what are they going to do put them in jail that are full all ready

  6. rotzeichen February 12, 2018 at 10:45 pm - Reply

    In view of the cost spent on the wedding and all the arrangements, a much better solution of clearing the streets would be a good will gesture, by supplying these homeless people with a marque and food for the day and night, where they could join in on the celebrations, and be a real part of it.

    But then you would need to be a thinking caring person to do a thing like that.

  7. NMac February 13, 2018 at 10:14 am - Reply

    Of course the homeless people won’t have the money to pay the fines, so what then? I suspect they will commit them to prison for non-payment. These people are heartless and evil.

  8. wildswimmerpete February 13, 2018 at 3:42 pm - Reply

    Prisons are so full that even suspected murderers have to be let out on bail. So where are going to put those who can’t pay their fines?

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