Community Protection Notices should be scrapped over “subjective” enforcement, campaigners say

The Campaign for Freedom in Everyday Life (CFEL) said the vast majority of CPNs are "unnecessary, or would be better pursued through other legal avenues".

Its report described CPNs as a "catch-all power with very few checks" that allows council officers considerable discretion over what behaviour should be restricted.

Councils and police can issue CPNs under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 where they are satisfied that a person's conduct is having a detrimental effect on the quality of life of those in the locality, is persistent or continuing in nature, and is unreasonable.

The notices can require recipients to stop certain activities or take specified action, with failure to comply constituting a criminal offence.

A CPN must be preceded by a Community Protection Warning (CPW), which is issued on similar grounds.

CFEL collects national data on councils' use of the powers through freedom of information requests. Its latest report, covering November 2023 to October 2025, found that waste accumulation, anti-social behaviour and noise were among the most common subjects of notices and warnings.

However, the group said the data also revealed instances of councils pursuing notices for what it described as "anodyne" activities, including feeding birds, putting bins out early and maintaining untidy gardens.

Among the examples highlighted in the report was a CPN issued by Havant Borough Council concerning noise from a garden water fountain, which required the recipient to ensure that the fountain did not cause a noise nuisance between 11pm and 7am.

Elsewhere, Herefordshire Council issued a warning over noise from animatronic dinosaurs at a visitor attraction, while South Staffordshire issued a notice restricting shouting, swearing and abusive language audible to neighbours.

According to CFEL's data, councils issued 4,868 CPNs and 20,108 CPWs in 2024-25, compared with 4,004 CPNs and 20,801 CPWs the previous year.

Since the powers were introduced in 2014, councils have issued a total of 62,816 CPNs, alongside 131,946 recorded CPWs, although the latter figure does not include complete data for several years.

The report also highlighted "great variation" between councils' use of the powers, noting that Durham County Council issued the highest number of combined notices and warnings in 2024-25, with 856 CPNs and 2,112 CPWs.

By contrast, 57 councils issued no CPNs in 2024-25, while 168 issued five or fewer, the report noted.

Commenting more broadly on the powers, the group warned that CPNs could lead to people being criminalised on the basis of personal preferences.

It said: "It is possible to receive a legal order because someone (or perhaps even just a council official) doesn't like something that you are doing; that they don't like the wood stacked in your front garden, or the wild appearance of your garden, or the music that you are playing, or the noise of your water fountain."

The group also raised concerns about the safeguards available to recipients, claiming that protections contained in statutory guidance were often ignored and that challenging a notice through the magistrates' court could be intimidating and expose individuals to significant legal costs.

It pointed to the judgment in Stannard v CPS, which established that recipients should be able to make written representations requesting that a notice be varied or discharged, with authorities expected to have procedures for considering such requests.

However, CFEL claimed that recipients were generally not informed of this right and that most councils lacked impartial procedures for considering written representations.

Concluding, the group said: "It remains our view that CPNs should be scrapped. We are not convinced that there is any need for this power, in addition to the civil injunction and statutory nuisance powers that already exist.

"The vast majority of CPNs are unnecessary, or would be better pursued through other legal avenues. If the power remains, it must be subject to the due process and standards of proportionality that would be expected from any other coercive power in the criminal law."

Responding to the report, a spokesperson for the Local Government Association said CPNs can be used to address a range of anti-social activities “and also offer a quicker and less expensive response to other issues raised by communities”.

It added: “Crime and anti-social behaviour vary from place to place, so councils are best placed to decide the most appropriate enforcement arrangements for their area, ensuring any approach is fair, transparent and accountable, while remaining robust."

Adam Carey