Council looks to crack down on ticket touting at Royal Ascot

Police and community wardens could be given new powers to tackle ticket touting in Ascot to protect residents and visitors during Royal Ascot.

Ticket touting is selling, offering for sale, or advertising event tickets without the express written permission of the event organiser, and approaching members of the public with the intention of selling or exchanging tickets.

A new consultation by RBWM looks at creating a new Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) – a common tool used to tackle antisocial behaviour – to crack down on this.

These prohibit certain activities in certain places – like drinking alcohol for example. In this case, the order would be placed on Ascot High Street and Station Hill.

If introduced, it would give police officers and community wardens the power to challenge anyone ticket touting or engaged in unauthorised selling.

Should they discover people doing this, the authorities could issue a fixed penalty notice of £100.

Within the PSPO area, no one is allowed to:

• Sell or try to sell goods, merchandise, or services without a valid licence or written consent from the council
• Setting up any stall, table, stand, or similar structure to sell or promote goods or services
• Display goods for sale in any public place
• Advertise, or try to exchange tickets for any event in the PSPO area – unless you have written permission from the event organiser
• Approach people with the intention of selling or exchanging tickets
• Block pedestrian movement by loitering, gathering, or placing items in a way that gets in people’s way, while engaged in ticket touting or selling.

A person commits an offence if an authorised officer reasonably believes they have done any of the above in a public place without good reason.

Before going ahead with this, the Borough is launching a public consultation to see if residents agree.

The consultation asks residents whether they agree with the proposal – and also seeks to help the council to understand more about anti-social behaviour in the borough.

It runs until Wednesday, January 21.

A council spokesperson said: “By setting clear expectations and giving officers the means to act quickly, we’ll deter nuisance activity and support residents, visitors and local businesses.

“This is a fair, common-sense measure that backs those who play by the rules.”

More information is available on the RBWM Together website (tinyurl.com/royal-ascot-PSPO), while printed copies of the consultation documents are available at all libraries.

Should RBWM make the PSPO, anyone who lives in, works in, or regularly visits the restricted area can challenge its validity in the High Court.

This must be done within six weeks of the date the order is made, and only on the basis that the council had no power to make it or did not follow the correct legal process.

To respond to the survey collecting residents views, go to: tinyurl.com/rbwm-ticket-tout