Dispersal Zones in Brent

Thinking about the problems in Hazel Road over some years, I thought it might be a good idea to explain how dispersal zones get implemented.

There is a line of liberatarian rhetoric that regards dispersal zone as being arbitrary and draconian impositions. This is the line that the Liberal Democrats adopted when the legislation was first introduced, and that they have been rowing back from since. I have blogged before that when the Liberal Democrats were in administration in Brent Council, they ignored their party's more radical policies. This includes the introduction of ASBOs and Dispersal Zones, where they made no attempt to enforce their party line.

In fact they continued the Labour policy of agreeing the use of these policies when appropriate. In practice (as opposed to rhetorically), dispersal zones can only be implemented after a lot of work. The police need to have evidence of wrongdoing (although this can have a lower standard of evidence than a Court; for instance anonymous statements). Zones have to be part of an overall plan to address the causes of the problems (so in the case of Hazel Road there was a lot of investment in youth work). Any zone or ASBO has to be proportionate to the problem.

Critics of this approach need to come up with an alternative that effectively tackles the problems addressed.