Buskers ‘Threatened’ by Council

Liverpool’s street performers claim ‘intimidation’ and ‘harassment’ by Liverpool City Council this week.

Jonathan Walker, a Liverpool busker, said: “Street entertainers are being forced to stop performing by city council officials, flanked by police officers, and unlawfully asked to provide their personal details. If they do not co-operate they are then ordered to move on for being obstructive. This is aggressive behaviour by our city officials.”

In response, David Kirwan, a leading Liverpool solicitor, has defended the right of Liverpool’s buskers to perform. He commented: “We don’t want buskers being picked off and frozen out while trying to earn a few pounds entertaining shoppers and passersby on our streets. Liverpool city council must stop harassing buskers.”

The claim arises just two months after Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson agreed to drop the policy to regulate spontaneous busker activity on Liverpool’s city centre streets.

The proposed policy required all street entertainers to purchase a permit, take out high rate liability insurance, and book in advance a ‘council-deemed appropriate spot in which the performer(s) can use no more than an area of 1.5 metre radius in the city centre’.

The scheme was abandoned in August after Jonathan successfully launched ‘Keep Streets Live’, a campaign which celebrated and defended the spontaneity of street performance in Liverpool.

Kirwan added: “This matter went to the High Court only a few weeks ago yet I am appalled that Liverpool City Council has not learned its lesson and that we are back to square one. Buskers have a right to perform free from hostility or harassment.”

Kirwan continued: “At the time of our successful judicial proceedings Mayor Anderson decided to scrap the controversial policy to save taxpayers the cost of a High Court legal battle and also to allow all parties to ‘get on with working together to deliver a solution to satisfy everyone.”

Jonathan said that the council has failed to include the buskers in any discussion about future regulations. He commented: “The scrapping of the contentious policy represented an ideal opportunity for Liverpool Council to work with street performers to develop an approach that would protect our public spaces whilst dealing with issues that often arise from street performing. Sadly, however, the council have not approached any of the people involved in the Keep Streets Live campaign and have instead chosen to act in a heavy-handed manner towards the street performing community.”

Jonathan is worried about future correspondence between the council and street performers. He said: “That they have chosen to act in this way only two months after dropping their policy is a worrying indication of the importance they place on consultation and collaboration.”