I am delighted to announce that Birmingham City Council have abandoned their plan to use a PSPO to criminalise 'noisy' buskers in the city. More than 650 people responded to the council’s consultation on the matter, with 60% to 40% against the proposals to use the controversial 'Public Space Protection Order' against buskers. Labour cabinet member James McKay said: “Many felt the PSPO was the right tool to deal with this issue, but many also contrarily argued that the vibrancy of the city centre provided by busking, by debate and by free speech were far more important priorities. “The message which came back was: ‘If you want to crack walnut, use a nutcracker not a sledgehammer’. “In the light of the consultation I’m pleased to announce we will not be proceeding with the PSPO.” Coun McKay said the existing code of conduct for busking would instead be reviewed and the council would look at targeted action against other activities which were a nuisance or excessively noisy. We welcome this news from Birmingham City Council who deserve credit for listening to concerns about freedom of expression and choosing a more collaborative approach to the oversight of busking in the city. A similar measure to introduce a PSPO which would criminalise 'unauthorised' busking in Chester and also make it a criminal offence to 'lie down or sleeping any public place' in the city is currently being consulted on by Chester and Cheshire West Council. The success of our campaign in Birmingham proves that councils DO listen to the concerns of citizens. Please take the time, if you can, to fill in the Chester consultation online and say no to the measures that would criminalise buskers and the homeless. You can take part in the consultation by following this link: I have published our response to the consultation for your reference. Feel free to use our answers as a working template if you find them useful. Thanks once again for your support and for helping to keep the streets of Birmingham alive with spontaneous offerings of music and art. You helped make this possible. Kind regards, Jonny Walker Founding Director Keep Streets Live Campaign http://keepstreetslive.com