Fine for Catcalling Van Driver on Fulham Palace Road
New street harassment order used to take action against him
'Sarah Jane' was subjected to an ordeal lasting 20 seconds
November 12, 2024
A young woman who was catcalled for around 20 seconds on Fulham Palace Road has praised the speed and effectiveness of council officers in issuing a £100 fine to the man involved. It marks a new era in tackling sexual harassment on London’s streets after Hammersmith and Fulham Council introduced the capital’s first borough-wide street harassment Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) in July this year.
Sarah Jane, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, has told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) it ‘feels really good that people actually care’ after action was taken following the incident on the road, which runs from Hammersmith to Fulham, in September.
Sarah Jane, 26, said, “It feels really good that people actually care and are doing something about it. Obviously catcalling is bad, but I just don’t think it’s [seen as] that bad because you’re brought up to just deal with it, it’s just something that happens. And so it’s good to see that they are doing something about it.”
Sarah Jane had been waiting at a set of traffic lights when a man in a vehicle began catcalling her. She said this went on for around 20 seconds.
The vehicle had his company’s logo on it, so a short time later, she searched ‘sexual harassment in public spaces’ online and came across the Law Enforcement Team (LET) which has been set up by the council to deal with antisocial behaviour and low level crime. She quickly fired off an email, and was surprised when an LET officer came back within minutes.
Following some further correspondence with the LET including a phone call, Sarah Jane was informed the man was issued a £100 fixed penalty notice (FPN) just a few days later. This was later reduced to £60, due to it being paid within 10 days.
She added that she has been catcalled ‘so many times’, and that it is something she typically just tries to ignore. On the day in question, she said the length of time the catcalling continued, however, left her angry and determined to do something about it.
PSPOs are implemented by local authorities to deal with nuisances in a particular area, but the use of them to deal with street-based sexual harassment is new. Barking and Dagenham Council has also now introduced a similar PSPO which is effectively an extension of one already in place, to include sexual harassment.
Other Hammersmith and Fulham PSPOs include banning the use of motorised vehicles along pedestrianised parts of the Thames Path and a responsible dog ownership order, which has requirements around issues such as dog exclusion zones and dog fouling.
The street harassment PSPO covers offences such as sexualised comments, flashing and catcalling. It enables the LET, alongside partners such as the police, to issue an FPN to those caught failing to comply. These start at £100, or £60 if paid within 10 days, and can go up to £1,000 if the case goes to court.
Following the July launch, the first few months were focussed on engagement to build awareness and understanding of the new PSPO. But it’s now being actively enforced.
On the PSPO specifically, Sarah Jane said it makes her feel ‘more validated’ and like the council is able to do something about such issues. However, she added: “I think it’s still going to happen. Until it’s more well known, I don’t think it’ll be preventative.”
The key hurdle in her opinion is ensuring as many people know about the PSPO and the ability to contact the LET as possible. Sarah Jane said she has since told female friends about the experience, and that they were ‘really positively surprised’ due to catcalling often not seen as a crime.
The council has also launched a digitised map, enabling residents to flag areas of high concern and help the local authority identify where its resources are most needed.
Redbridge Council was in 2022 the first local authority in the capital to issue a fine for catcalling. This was however done using a more localised PSPO, with Hammersmith and Fulham’s the first to be borough-wide.
Cllr Rebecca Harvey, Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Community Safety, said the introduction of the PSPO was born from the desire to better tackle sexual harassment in the borough.
Cllr Rebecca Harvey (r) with one of the council's Law Enforcement Officers
The PSPO was seen as a good way to make clear it’s not acceptable and act as a deterrent. “I think if you hit someone financially they’re more likely to remember the message than if you just say ‘you shouldn’t do that’, because I think a lot of people already know you shouldn’t behave in that way, so if you give someone an order it’s much more official and it teaches a lesson I think about it,” she said.
The PSPO is not limited to harassment against women and girls. These groups are however understood to be where the majority of such offences are directed, with a council webpage stating 97 per cent of women aged 18 to 24 have been sexually harassed in the UK.
Cllr Harvey said every woman she knows, including herself, has experienced this kind of behaviour. She said she has even heard examples of girls leaving school getting harassed, which is ‘just not right’.
“We should be able to go to work, go shopping, go out at night and go home, and just move around the borough freely without the fear of someone saying or doing something or being made to feel uncomfortable just because we’re women and girls.”
Ben Lynch - Local Democracy Reporter