The requirement to give advance notice of mass cycle rides is a worrying incursion on civil liberties, says Seamus Burns
Since 1994, cyclists have gathered near the National Film Theatre on the South Bank, London, at a set time early in the evening of the last Friday of each month for a mass ride through the streets of London, dubbed “Critical Mass”, with 100 to 400 cyclists taking part. Those features of the cycle ride are fixed, but the route is not. Since 1994 over 150 monthly mass cycle rides have taken place.
The Metropolitan Police commissioner had unsuccessfully argued in the Divisional Court, comprised of Lord Justice Sedley and Mr Justice Gray (see Kay v Metropolitan Police Commissioner [2006] EWHC 1536 (Admin), [2006] All ER (D) 304 (Jun)) that the cycle rides were processions which the organisers were required to give the police advance notice of under the Public Order Act 1986 (POA 1986), s 11 and that the organisers had failed to do this.
However, the Divisional Court held that the monthly
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