Cyclists could face on-the-spot £500 fines for riding in pedestrian zones under new bill – but campaigners slam “meaningless rhetoric” and ask: “How is this justice?”

The government’s new Crime and Policing Bill, which aims to tackle anti-social behaviour and has been branded “one of the biggest legislative updates to policing for decades”, could lead to cyclists being handed on-the-spot £500 fines for riding in pedestrian zones or on footpaths, a move that has prompted campaigners to ask: “How is this justice?”

Under current Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs), introduced to deal with nuisance, anti-social, and dangerous behaviour in towns and cities across the UK, cyclists face Fixed Penalty Notices of £100 – or more, if they appeal – for riding their bikes in no-cycling zones.

As we have reported on road.cc on a regular basis, PSPOs banning cycling in pedestrian areas, and giving council officers the power to fine people riding bikes, have been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent years.

Despite their apparent aim to deter anti-social or nuisance behaviour in town and city centres, several local authorities who have implemented the measures have been criticised for instead imposing sometimes hefty fines on people riding their bikes safely in pedestrian zones.

Cycling campaigners have also argued that PSPOs banning cycling in certain areas only serve to discourage people from making journeys into town by bike, while failing to crack down on actual instances of anti-social behaviour.

Grimsby PSPO enforcement officer stops cyclist (credit: North East Lincolnshire Council)

> “Stick it up your a*se”, 82-year-old tells council officer after being fined £100 for cycling in town centre

In Grimsby, for instance, where the fines have become something of a long-running saga and ‘no-cycling’ Tannoy messages ring out across the town’s shopping street twice an hour, council officers have been accused of targeting “old and slow” cyclists using their bikes to get into town and visit the shops, while ignoring youths “racing up and down”.

1,472 fixed penalty notices were issued in the six-month period between April and September 2024 to people breaching Grimsby’s cycling PSPO, along with those caught littering, enabling dog fouling, smoking in a smoke-free zone, and parking illegally.

In October 2022, an 82-year-old pensioner made headlines after telling Grimsby Council to stick its £100 fine “up your arse”, while a year later another cyclist was ordered to pay £1,150 after being caught riding through the town centre and failing to pay the fixed penalty notice.

The tendency for councils to employ third-party private contractors to enforce the PSPOs has also been the subject of fierce criticism.

75 per cent of all PSPO-related fines are issued by private contractors, leading campaigners to argue that the use of external wardens, who are financially incentivised to issue fines and sometimes fail to understand the area or the rules in place, means people on bikes can be unfairly targeted by warden “lying in wait” for them.

> Fines issued to pavement cyclists will be based on “behaviour, not location” says council, in town where female cyclist was fined £100 for riding on cycle path and others threatened with £1,000 penalties by “cowboy wardens”

This proved particularly the case last year in Colchester, where the local council was forced to put a temporary halt to its penalty system after campaigners complained that third-party wardens were “running amok”.

These “cowboy” wardens were accused of discouraging people from cycling in the city, by mistakenly – and without warning – handing cyclists £100 fines for riding their bikes in areas where cycling is in fact permitted, threatening them with a £1,000 penalty if they appealed the fine, and telling one elderly female cyclist that she wasn’t allowed to use a city centre road because she doesn’t pay “road tax”.

In Birmingham, cycling campaigners are currently hoping to stop the introduction of a PSPO seemingly designed to halt “speeding” delivery riders, but which cyclists argue will make parts of the city centre “impermeable for cycling”, discriminate against people who use cycles as mobility aids, and fail to stamp out nuisance or dangerous behaviour.

Worcester no cycling signs (credit: road.cc)

Active travel charity Cycling UK has long been a prominent critic of PSPOs, which it claims have the effect of criminalising cycling and discouraging people from riding into town, while failing to combat actual nuisance behaviour.

“Some councils have used PSPOs as a geographically defined version of an ASBO to restrict the use of public space and criminalise behaviour not normally regarded as illegal,” Duncan Dollimore, Cycling UK’s head of campaigns, has previously said.

> Cyclists to face education course or fine for 10 new offences — including "dangerous" riding, cycling "without due care and attention" and riding without lights at night

But, according to the Labour government’s new Crime and Policing Bill, PSPOs could become an even graver concern for cyclists, with FPNs handed out as part of PSPOs set to rise from £100 to £500 under the new package of laws.

Labour says the bill, which was introduced in the House of Commons last week and is set to undergo a second reading on Monday 10 March, is “central to the government’s Plan for Change and Safer Streets mission”, and aims to crack down on anti-social behaviour, shop theft, and street crime, including giving police officers more power to search for stolen mobile phones.

Clause four of the bill, however, includes an amendment to the Police Reform Act 2002, which will enable police officers or authorised officials to issue fixed penalty notices “in respect of offences relating to public space protection orders” of £500, replacing the current £100 ceiling for on-the-spot PSPO fines.

This change was criticised in a statement published on Monday by the Manifesto Club, a campaign group opposing “the hyper-regulation of public spaces”, who pointed to the fine dished out to the 82-year-old cyclist from Grimsby as evidence of the absurdity of the bill’s attempt to challenge “anti-social behaviour”.

“He was fined £100 for breaking the PSPO. Now under the Crime and Policing Bill, he would be fined £500. How is this justice?” the group asked.

> Hundreds more cyclists fined by "enforcement officers" under town's controversial cycling ban, months on from rider ordered to pay £1,050

Arguing that the vast majority of PSPO-related fines are issued for “innocuous actions”, the Manifesto Club continued: “The Home Office claims that the bill shows its ‘zero tolerance’ approach to anti-social behaviour. This is meaningless rhetoric which ignores how these fines are issued and the offences for which they are issued.”

Along with the obstinate pensioner in Grimsby, the group noted that “others fined included a busker playing outside a Bruce Springsteen concert and a cyclist locking his bike to a bike rack”.

“There is a noxious cocktail of over-broad laws that are being enforced by private enforcement companies on commission,” the group says.

“PSPOs ban everything from causing annoyance to standing in groups, and they are being enforced by companies who are incentivised to issue as many fines as possible.

“The Home Office is increasing fines because it is an easy ‘get tough’ gesture that can be done at the stroke of a law-maker’s pen. This gesture will be cheap for the Home Office but will cost society dear.

“The increase in fines will do nothing to tackle crime or improve the quality of life. Its only result will be to spark a boom in the enforcement industry, so that more innocent people will be punished for innocuous actions. Clause 4 must be opposed at all costs.”

> Driver who “charged through” mini-roundabout and hit cyclist before reversing over her – leaving her with multiple serious injuries – keeps licence and fined £600

Meanwhile, Will Bramhill, the secretary of the Colchester Cycling Campaign, who opposed the questionable implementation of the city’s PSPO by third-party wardens last year, also told road.cc: “The rise in PSPO fines seems ridiculous when the police fine is still only £60 or so.

“It looks as though we are to have two-tier law enforcement, which will put the Peelian Principles under strain. If I were a chief of police I would be most concerned.

“As we saw in Colchester, the handing out of PSPO fines can be arbitrary. I’m happy that, thanks to a great response from our city council, we have the situation here sorted by and large – our wardens are now told that it is ‘behaviour not location’ and they learn all about the Boateng principle. Cyclists in other cities with gung-ho wardens might not be so lucky.

“The £500 fine for dropping a piece of paper or riding somewhere you shouldn’t is in sharp contrast to the £600 fine given to a motorist last week for careless driving: they hit a cyclist and caused them life-changing injuries.

“These issues need to be considered seriously in parliament, so I hope there are a few MPs reading road.cc!”