Croydon wants PSPO powers in 127 parks and eight district high streets, and to renew Thornton Heath's. In 409 incidents there, police took alcohol 338 times and issued no fines.

Croydon Council wants to extend public space protection orders to every park in the borough and to eight district high streets. It also wants to renew the order covering Thornton Heath, which lapses in February.

Cabinet will be asked on Wednesday 14 October to approve public consultation on both plans. A public space protection order, or PSPO, makes certain behaviour in a mapped area a criminal offence.

The parks and high streets report names these district centres:

  • Crystal Palace
  • Norbury
  • Addiscombe
  • Purley
  • Coulsdon
  • Selsdon
  • New Addington
  • South Norwood

The list of parks and open spaces runs to 127 entries. It goes from Addington Hills to Woodside Green, and takes in Lloyd Park, Wandle Park, Park Hill, South Norwood Lake, Farthing Downs and dozens of small playgrounds and woods.

What would be banned

The reports do not yet set out the exact prohibitions. The Executive Mayor’s introduction says the powers “would help tackle problems such as street drinking, noise nuisance, harassment and intimidation”. The detail will be in the consultation.

The report says the Friends of Parks Forum has told the Mayor it supports extending PSPO controls. Croydon town centre already has an order, first made in 2022 and renewed in November 2025, and Thornton Heath has had one since February 2024.

What the Thornton Heath order has done

A separate report asks to consult on renewing the Thornton Heath order for another three years. Its enforcement appendix is the most detailed account the council has published of how a PSPO works in practice.

Officers logged 409 incidents between February 2024 and June 2026. Of those:

  • 384 (93.9%) involved drinking or carrying alcohol
  • 19 involved harassment, alarm or distress
  • 14 involved urinating in public

Three places produced 248 of the incidents, or 60.6%. They were Thornton Heath Ponds, the clock tower and Parchmore Road. Trumble Gardens and Grange Park Road came next.

Bar chart of 607 enforcement actions in 409 Thornton Heath PSPO incidents, February 2024 to June 2026: alcohol confiscated or poured away 338; asked to stop and complied 140; asked to leave and complied 99; refused to hand over alcohol 13; stopped urinating 12; ASB warning issued 4; asked to leave and refused 1.
Most PSPO incidents in Thornton Heath ended with alcohol being taken away. Chart by Croydon Today
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Most encounters ended on the spot. The appendix says 96.6% ended with the person complying. Officers took or poured away alcohol 338 times, and recorded four anti-social behaviour warnings.

Nobody has been fined. Only the police can enforce the order at present, and the report says “the Police do not issue FPNs in relation to breaches of the PSPO”. It says fixed penalty notices “can be considered moving forward”. The council could also authorise its contracted patrol service to enforce the order, but has not yet done so.

Uniformed patrol officers did issue 138 anti-social behaviour warnings across Thornton Heath in August 2026 alone. Those are separate from the PSPO returns.

Has it reduced anti-social behaviour?

Modestly. Police-recorded anti-social behaviour in the order’s area fell 3.4%, from 158.6 to 153.2 reports a month. Over the same period it rose 6.1% in the rest of the borough, from 545.8 to 579.1 a month. The appendix compares June 2023 to May 2026, with eight months before the order and 28 after.

The council’s own appendix also warns that its figures “measure enforcement activity, not the level of street drinking”. The town centre order is credited with a 24% fall in reported anti-social behaviour between November 2022 and November 2025.

Most people stopped were men: 86.4% of those whose gender was recorded. The median age, where it was recorded, was 46.5. No under-18s appear in the data.

What it means for you

Nothing changes yet. Cabinet is only being asked to approve consultation. The reports set out this timetable:

  • 14 October: Cabinet decides whether to consult
  • November to December 2026: six-week public consultation, on the council’s online platform
  • December 2026 to January 2027: responses analysed
  • February 2027: final report to Cabinet on whether to make or renew the orders

If you use one of the listed parks or shop in one of the eight centres, the consultation is where you can say what problems you see, and whether a ban would help. We will link to it when it opens.

A breach of a PSPO is a criminal offence. It can be dealt with by a fixed penalty notice or by prosecution and a fine, and fixed penalties can only be given to over-18s. For local crime figures by ward, see our Croydon crime figures for August 2026.

The meeting starts at 6.30pm in the Council Chamber at the Town Hall, Katharine Street. The agenda and papers are online.