PROTESTERS in Stroud joined campaigners across the country today (Sunday) in protesting against the new policing bill and the threat it poses to civil liberties.

Eight people raised four large banners outside the Subscription Rooms, which read: '10 years in jail for serious annoyance?'; 'No to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill!', 'Use it or lose it: defend the right to protest' and 'Solidarity with Gypsies, Roma & Travellers'.

The wide-ranging Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill includes a raft of measures that limit the right to protest, expand surveillance and monitoring of ethnic minority communities, and grant police and courts wider powers. The Bill dramatically extends the range of powers police can use to shut down protests and increases potential criminal sanctions for protesters. Under the legislation, police will be able impose conditions on where and how protests take place, prosecuting people if they knowingly or unknowingly breach these conditions. The legislation also allows for protesters to be handed prison sentences of up to ten years for vaguely defined offences of ‘serious annoyance’ or ‘serious inconvenience’.

The legislation directly targets Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities by criminalising 'unauthorised encampments'. Police will be empowered to seize property from GRT communities, including homes, if they suspect someone is “residing on land without consent or with a vehicle”. With central government and local authorities continuously restricting the number of authorised sites for GRT communities, additional enforcement and fines for stopping in unauthorised locations threatens to push people into the criminal justice system, homelessness and destitution.

Protests took place this weekend in at least 12 cities around the country.

Over 200,000 people have signed petitions in opposition to the Bill and those involved in today’s action said they understood 700 from the Stroud constituency had signed already, with more signatures coming in each day.

The Stroud campaigners said: “Our local MP Siobhan Baillie voted in favour of this horrifying piece of legislation in parliament last week, despite large numbers of people in Stroud voicing their opposition.

"The Bill has now been delayed in response to the public outcry, meaning it’s not too late for MPs to take a stand and join together across party lines to stop this dangerous piece of legislation.

"We made our stand today to make it clear we will not let our freedoms be curtailed without a fight.

"We will stand in solidarity with those at the sharp end of police violence and harassment.”

MP Siobhan Baillie has issued the following response: "The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is a wide-ranging piece of legislation which has many proposals in it that are very popular with the public.

"These include increased jail terms for those who attack frontline emergency workers, the power to seize vehicles or fine trespassers intending to reside on private and public land, tougher sentences, including Whole Life Orders for premeditated murder of a child and the end of automatic release halfway through sentence of serious violent and sexual offenders.

"The majority of people can therefore understand why I voted for the Bill at second reading despite a small but vocal few who mainly want to talk about their right to protest.  

"I am concerned by the deliberate misinformation circling about protests.  It’s absolutely nonsense that people will receive a ten-year custodial sentence for being noisy at protests or that protests will be banned. Everyone’s right to freedom of expression and of association is enshrined in the Human Rights Act and this bill does nothing to weaken that.

"Many people were outraged to see war memorials and statues of Churchill damaged by protesters recently, so the government has taken action to increase the jail sentence for those who commit this criminal damage. It is feared that the country’s heritage will be further targeted without this action. 

"The right to protest is fundamental but it is not an unqualified right.  It does not mean anybody can protest at the expense of all others. This Bill recognises it is not fair to protest for weeks, block roads, stop trains and prevent people earning a living or even see their dying relatives in hospital because of disruptive protests. I think this is correct.  Protest peacefully by all means but respect the right for people to get on with their lives. 

"Unfortunately, protesters over the last few years have deliberately caused mayhem, caused criminal damage, often set out to get arrested to waste police time and cost the taxpayer millions of pounds.  While I think more work could be done to define some terms in the proposed legislation, I support the government’s attempts to tackle such behaviour.

"I would also say that the protests at the weekend in Bristol were appalling. Police officers were seriously injured and vehicles damaged. That was not about getting people’s voices heard or the right to protest. It was about thuggery and lawlessness and we see it too often.  No-one in this country has a right to do that."