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Removing benches, blocking cycle paths: why are police interfering in the UK’s public spaces?
The Secured by Design initiative is damaging British cities, robbing them of greenery and public amenities while promoting fear
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In Sussex, the Liberal Democrat district councillor Ruth Fletcher has complained about how footpaths and bike tracks were removed from a proposed housing development in Horsham after police objections. Pippa Goldfinger, of Bristol-based Design West, told me that officers in Frome, Somerset, insisted a passcode-operated gate be installed outside some sheltered housing. The elderly residents were unable to remember the passcode and found the gate too heavy to push, becoming locked out of their homes.
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“We end up implementing the recommendations to get planning permission but many are horrendous,” Russell Curtis, the cofounder of architecture firm RCKa, told me. “The problem with Secured by Design is that it’s diametrically opposed to good placemaking and promotes fear. Britain has a huge problem with loneliness and isolation. We should be taking steps to address this, but Secured by Design does the exact opposite, encouraging people to live in fear of their neighbours.”
Rather than removing park benches, authorities should focus on meaningful social investment that can alleviate inequality and social marginalisation. Secured by Design is damaging our cities, robbing them of greenery and public amenities while promoting fear and isolation. Just as teachers’ unions are now calling for no police in schools, it is time to end police involvement in architecture and urban design too.
Phineas Harper is director of the charity Open City
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