Thanet Council Leader says claims of a swearing ban are a "mountain of nonsense"
Councillors have voted through a new Public Spaces Protection Order
A council leader has called recent reporting on an abuse and swearing order "a mountain of nonsense" as they backed new plans to protect public spaces.
In recent days, Thanet District Council in Kent has been the subject of media scrutiny about a supposed "swearing ban" in their Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO).
At a cabinet meeting in Margate on Thursday evening, councillors complained of "misleading" reporting about the new order.
Labour councillor Heather Keen said: "The importance of the PSPO, which has seven behaviours identified, has been overshadowed by the portrayal that Thanet is banning swearing.
"This is a disingenuous, inaccurate headline designed to grab attention. Let me be clear, Thanet is not banning swearing or preventing free speech.
"The reference to foul and abusive language only applies if it is causing harassment, alarm or distress to another person - not if it is casual swearing."
An order was first brought in by Thanet in 2018, and similar orders exist in Canterbury and Dartford as well as elsewhere in the country, the meeting heard.
Last summer, when the council attempted to renew and reword their PSPO, the proposal was rejected amid a threat of a legal challenge.
They said that more work has been undertaken to ensure this is something their residents want.
Within the report, the authors touch on concerns raised by Thanet residents, who said the current wording was too broad and may lead to young people and people from minority backgrounds being unfairly moved on or fined.
There was also a concern that "causing distress to others" could be used to target peaceful protests.
Ms Keen said that their further consultation had shown that a majority of the public support "all the measures" of the new order.
Leader of the council Rick Everitt was particularly critical of an original KentOnline report which he said omitted key facts.
"The KM story, because it was misleading, has led on to a mountain of nonsense in other media and in my view it was dishonest from the outset," he said.
There was also reference to the Free Speech Union (FSU), which describes itself as countering cancel culture and had threatened a judicial review when the last PSPO was proposed.
The Times reported that the FSU had described the proposals as an absurdity, and suppressing the speech of the entire population.
"Abusing others is not a matter of freedom of speech, it simply isn't," said Labour councillor Helen Whitehead.
After a lively discussion, members of the cabinet agreed that there were no further concerns with the PSPO coming into force and are expected to move ahead.