ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

Controversy erupted today over London town halls creating a string of new offences including a ban on people gathering in pairs in some areas apart from at bus stops.

Civil liberty campaigners criticised the increasing use of public space protection orders which allow councils to hit people with £100 on-the-spot fines.

Individuals commit an offence if they fail to comply, without reasonable excuse, with restrictions in the PSPOs such as to leave an area when told to do so and not return within 48 hours.

Hillingdon has brought in eight PSPOs since they were introduced a year and a half ago, including orders which allow the banning of:

People from gathering in groups of two or more in parts of Hayes town centre, Pinkwell, Kingshill Avenue, Kingsash Drive, as well as Cedars and Grainges car parks, unless waiting for a bus at a bus stop or going to or from a parked vehicle.

Individuals trying to enter an address in the Austin Road estate or Skeffington Court unless a local resident or guest.

Leaving the engine of a parked vehicle running in the Heathrow villages areas.

Feeding pigeons in parks in a manner which causes or is likely to cause a nuisance.

Using remote controlled model vehicles and aircraft in parks in a manner likely to cause nuisance from noise or cause harassment, alarm or distress to another person.

Havering council is also using a PSPO to target parents dropping their children off outside six primary schools.

Brent has used the legislation to stop people being picked up to do casual work, including by restricting mini-vans and coaches from stopping in parts of Cricklewood and Honeypot Lane.

Lambeth used a PSPO to crack down on “legal highs”.

Hackney was forced last summer to withdraw the inclusion of rough sleepers in an order targeting anti-social behaviour in several areas.

Josie Appleton, director of civil liberty group the Manifesto Club, criticised the Anti-Social Behaviour Policing and Crime Act which brought in PSPOs.

“These are blank cheque powers for unelected council officers to create crimes as they see fit,” she argued.

“It rips up the rules in terms of how laws should be made,” she added, claiming some councils had failed to properly consult on proposed orders.

But Simon Blackburn, chairman of the Local Government Association’s Safer and stronger communities board, said: “Clearly in the majority of cases, no action will be taken against people because they will be behaving in an innocent way.

“What these powers do is give councils and police the ability to enforce against people who are causing anti-social behaviour.”

Bromley and Chislehurst Conservative MP Bob Neill, co-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for London, said: “The principle does help residents, shopkeepers and businesses.

“But councils have to make sure the wording is carefully considered and proportionate to the problem. Council officials and members overseeing [PSPOs] also have to make sure common sense is applied in enforcement.”