Croydon residents and businesses are being asked to comment on renewing the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) covering Thornton Heath and nearby streets. The consultation followed Cabinet approval on 14 October and opened the next day. The existing order is due for renewal in February 2027.
The order gives police additional powers to address street drinking, public nuisance and other antisocial behaviour within its mapped area. The renewal consultation is intended to establish whether the order should continue and whether its coverage reflects current local concerns. No final renewal decision has been made.
What the order has recorded
Enforcement records provide a detailed picture of how the current order has been used. Between February 2024 and June 2026, officers logged 409 incidents in the area. Alcohol was involved in 384, or just under 94 per cent. Nineteen incidents involved harassment, alarm or distress, while 14 involved public urination.
Activity was concentrated in a few locations. Thornton Heath Ponds, the clock tower and Parchmore Road accounted for 248 recorded incidents, about three-fifths of the total. Trumble Gardens and Grange Park Road were also among the places with higher counts.
Most encounters ended with the person complying at the time. The enforcement record says 96.6 per cent concluded that way. Officers took or poured away alcohol on 338 occasions and recorded four antisocial-behaviour warnings. No fixed penalty notices had been issued under this order in the period covered. Police enforcement was the only enforcement route then in use; fixed penalties could be considered in future, but had not been introduced.
How local reports changed
Police-recorded antisocial behaviour reports in the order’s area averaged 153.2 a month after it began, compared with 158.6 a month in the eight months before. That is a 3.4 per cent reduction. Over the same comparison period, the monthly average in the rest of Croydon rose by 6.1 per cent, from 545.8 to 579.1.
The figures are a comparison, not proof that the order alone caused the difference. The council’s enforcement appendix cautions that its incident figures measure enforcement activity, not the overall level of street drinking. The reported reduction also does not mean antisocial behaviour has stopped: the area continued to generate recorded incidents during the order’s first two years.
The proposed renewal would allow the council and police to keep using the order’s additional powers after its current term. The separate consultation process gives residents and businesses an opportunity to comment on whether the order remains appropriate and on the problems it should address. Renewal remains a proposal, not a settled decision about the order’s future.
The council has also described youth outreach and regular joint patrols in Thornton Heath as part of wider local safety work. Outreach workers are due to accompany Parkguard officers on weekly patrols, with the stated aim of engaging young people and connecting them with support. The council is also participating in the Knife Crime Concentration Fund programme with police and the Home Office. These measures sit alongside, but are distinct from, the consultation on renewing the PSPO.
