Balaclavas could be banned in Nottingham city centre after public outcry against them prompted a bid to become the ‘safest city in the country’.
Other so-called nuisance behaviours like busking and begging are due to be outlawed for three years in a new Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) from Nottingham City Council.
A ban on balaclavas could be added to the PSPO after residents raised their concerns during a public consultation, council leader Neghat Khan said.
Ms Khan added that a shorter additional consultation on the introduction of balaclavas to the ban would be held if public opinion was strong enough.
The bans are all part of a wider plan to make Nottingham the ‘safest city in the country’, Ms Khan said, after revealing one report labelled it as the ‘seventh most unsafe place in the country.’
In July 2024, two balaclava-wearing teens, aged 13 and 19, murdered a 24-year-old man with a brick after he had made ‘rude sexual remarks’ to two 14-year-old girls.
The 13-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and Kai Howitt, 19, were jailed for four and a half years and 14 years respectively for killing Jack Edwards at Sussex Street skate park in Nottingham.
In a bid to make the city safer, and lose the seventh most dangerous city tag, the council is looking to target balaclavas and other nuisance behaviours too.
Busking that causes unreasonable disturbance, unauthorised requests for money and certain collections and selling the Big Issue in restricted areas are all in the council’s sights.
Ms Khan told the BBC: ‘It’s a serious concern. People on e-bikes; it’s 32 degrees and you’re wearing a balaclava. That’s not acceptable.
‘It’s about safety. People have got to feel confident. This is a place on the up but they’ve got to feel safe, day or night.
‘I am of the view that I understand religious reasons and things like that, but in 32 degrees that we’ve had a couple of weeks ago, people were on bikes with balaclavas on – that doesn’t make you feel safe.’
The council leader said she would not ‘rest until we’re the safest city in the country’.
She added: ‘I don’t care who it is, any time, day or night, you should feel safe. This is your city and we’re not going to let criminals and others take it over.’
The proposals were announced last Friday at the launch of the 2050 Nottingham Vision, in which the council set out 10 ideas it wanted to implement over the next 25 years.
