Seven fines for street wees in scheme's first year

A new council scheme aimed at cutting public urination in York handed out just seven fines in its first year.

The fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for street urination issued between June 2025 and this July had a combined value of £325 and three went unpaid, City of York Council figures showed.

In the same period, the city's Business Improvement District (BID) cleaning teams attended 4,891 incidents.

Council communities lead Pauline Stuchfield said the vast majority of offences happened at night meaning the issuing of fines relied on witness statements coming from partner organisations working during those times.

The fines were issued in Ordnance Lane in Fishergate and the city centre's Museum Street, Market Street, Bridge Street and Whip Ma Whop Ma Gate.

The others were issued in Acomb Road and Malton Road, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The city-wide street urination and defecation public space protection order (PSPO) came into force in June 2025 after £100 penalties were approved the previous April.

BID figures showed they received 4,194 clean-up requests in the year to March 2024.

The BID spokesperson said clean-up requests came from a combination of business requests and proactively checking known hotspots.

They added their night safety officers would now be out from 20:00 to 02:00 every Friday and Saturday which should help to combat the issue.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said areas where street urination was known to happen were patrolled and fine figures did not provide a complete picture of work happening to tackle offences.

The force said they took dealing with the issue seriously and remained committed to tackling it.

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