Public spaces in Britain are perhaps more heavily regulated than ever, not in a totalitarian effort to control the masses for political purposes, but simply to curb the nuisance that sometimes comes with sharing space with other people. The Manifesto Club has produced a map of London revealing the extent of special zones where particular activities - from drinking alcohol to leafleting to walking dogs - are highly regulated or banned. Whole swathes of the city are covered by overlapping zones in which everyday freedoms are curtailed in the name of public order or preventing nuisance. And the new officials overseeing these regulations are often not police but newly empowered council officials or private security guards. What is behind this dynamic? Is it a question of the privatisation of public space, or the extension of the state - or a combination of both? Why are local authorities moving so much into questions of policing and public order?

These controls will be greatly extended by the new Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill, due for enactment in summer 2014. With so many activities prohibited or requiring special permission, has ‘public space’ by definition become regulated space? Significantly, there is often substantial public support for measures such as spitting bans and booze bans, which are seen as necessary to establish basic civility. Is the state stepping in to do a job that civil society can do longer do for itself?