Street preachers given anti-social behaviour warning notices

Religious groups have received anti-social behaviour warning notices for the way they promote their faith to city centre shoppers.

Leicester City Council put a new public spaces protection order in place from 2 April to tackle issues including riding e-scooters, drinking, playing loud music and begging in the city centre.

But a number of religious groups have told the BBC they have received warnings for using loudspeakers and setting up street stalls and banners near the city’s clocktower.

Members of the groups have said they feel they are being unfairly targeted as a public nuisance for exercising their right to religious free speech.

The BBC found groups from the Christian and Islamic faiths and the Hare Krishna movement in the area near Leicester’s clock tower in the space of two days.

Rev Don Balkaran said he had been given a leaflet explaining the new public spaces protection order, which included a new ban on the amplifier that he uses to preach and sing.

Mr Balkaran said he comes to Leicester city centre to promote his faith three times a week and feels as though “the whole town is telling us to get lost.”

“I think the ban is out of order and very unreasonable,” he added.

Bon Okocha from the Universal Pentecostal Church said they had also been told to remove banners and temporary structures.

“I think it’s pretty hard-hitting on a lot of us especially the Christian community and even the Muslim community as well,” he added.

“It’s been a tradition of Leicester for quite some time and it has always been done in an amicable manner so it is quite shocking”.

A group of gospel singers told the BBC they felt amplification ban is “extreme”.

Princess Omoregbee, who was among the group, said she believes loudspeakers should be allowed.

She said: “We want to hear people speak, we want to hear people express themselves.”

Another group, called Light and Life Missions, was also using a loudspeaker to play Christian music as they handed out bibles and bible tracks.

Members of the group said they felt the warnings issued by the city council were taking away the right to free speech for all the religious groups gathered in the area.

Fahad Kadri, who volunteers at a street stall which hands out Qurans and Islamic literature, said: “The council very politely came across just mentioning that tables like this won’t be allowed, but if you’re standing here you might be okay.

“There are five or six things that are part of the new rules, one of those being bikes and e-scooters going through town centres.

“I can see why you would ban them, because they are quite dangerous with that many people there, but tables like this are fairly harmless.”

Nearby a group from the Hare Krishnas were chanting to the sound of chimes and a drum, but were not using loudspeakers or obstructions that are affected by the new restrictions.

Other groups said they are now taking advice on how they can comply with the new rules.

The new restrictions have been introduced by Leicester City Council after more than a thousand residents responded to a public consultation.

Nine of out ten people supported action to address unlicensed amplification and loudspeakers.

One Saturday shopper, who welcomed the crackdown, said it is “sometimes so loud you can’t hear yourself think”.

One hundred pound fines will be issued for breaches of the Public Space Protection Order from May.

Those fines will rise to a thousand pounds for any prosecution that leads to a conviction.

Sir Peter Soulsby, Mayor of Leicester, said the public spaces protection order does not ban religious groups from the city centre, but does aim to deter them from “unnecessary and intensely irritating behaviour”.

He added: “There has been overwhelming support for this and there are two issues. One is setting up stalls without going through the necessary process, so you don’t get them on every street corner.

“The other is the use of big amplifiers to blast their message out across the city centre.

“No one is stopping them from going out there and seeking to win converts and convince people, but what we are saying is do it in a responsible way and do not make a nuisance of yourself.”