Dear all, Thank you for signing and sharing the petition against Hackney Council's new Public Space Protection Orders. I am really pleased to announce that we have reached over 1,000 signatures in just a few days! Remember, similar proposals put forward by Oxford City Council were dropped after over 72,000 people signed a petition against them. For those of you who wish to do more, a Hackney renter group called "Digs" has written about this issue and called for an email-your-councillor campaign. Please read their post and do write to your local councillor using the template they have provided. You can find their post and template here: http://hackneyrenters.org/2015/05/20/hackney-criminalises-homelessness-email-your-councillor/#comment-13478 You may also be interested in reading coverage on this issue by The Metro (http://metro.co.uk/2015/06/02/homeless-people-to-be-fined-up-to-1000-for-sleeping-rough-5226481/?ito=facebook) and a great post written by Steve Lee, Senior Campaigns Officer at Crisis (http://blog.crisis.org.uk/is-rough-sleeping-anti-social/). Lastly, Hackney Council has responded to criticisms that it is criminalising the homeless. In a statement on its website, it claims that "people are urinating in the street, defecating in the churchyard, fighting and being abusive to members of public and spitting on passers-by, especially around the Narrow Way and St John’s Churchyard." Whilst the behaviours described above may be anti-social or cause distress to local members of the public, rough sleeping is not synonymous with these behaviours and should not in itself be criminalised or banned. You can read the full statement here: http://news.hackney.gov.uk/hackneys-public-space-protection-order. In due course, I will be writing a response to their statement but in the meantime, please do tweet, email or write to Hackney Council to share your thoughts regarding its justification. Thank you again for your support so far. I hope you will continue to join me in the fight against these punitive measures. As the campaign against Oxford City Council has demonstrated, together we can stop councils from criminalising the vulnerable. With warm wishes, Zahira Patel.