A PEACEFUL protest was held in Wrexham to oppose new powers allowing police to curb protests.

In recent days, demonstrators took to the streets of London to continue to protest over the policing of a vigil for Sarah Everard on Saturday and over the Government's Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.

The bill would give police in England and Wales the power to impose conditions on non-violent protests judged to be too noisy and thereby causing "intimidation or harassment" or "serious unease, alarm or distress" to the public.

A protest opposing the bill took place outside Wrexham Police Station on Monday evening.

North Wales Police said the event saw around 20 people turn up at Llwyn Isaf.

They were socially distanced and stayed a short time before leaving, with no issues, a spokesman for the force said.

Iolanda Banu Viegas, organiser for Black Lives Matter Wrexham, said she attended because she was concerned punishments for protesting could be made 'disproportionate' under the bill, as compared to those for more serious offences.

Miss Viegas, 47, said: "I wasn't aware of it until Monday morning and I shared it through the Black Lives Matter Wrexham Facebook page - and it did gain some interest among our friends.

"It went well considering the short notice.

"We didn't want lots of people there because we are still in the middle of a pandemic.

"But it was held safely. We asked everyone to socially distance and to bring a face mask.

"We were there for half an hour and nothing major happened, there were no problems.

"It was to show our opposition to the bill which wants to take our freedom to protest.

"I think we should all be worried about it."

Wrexham Town Inspector Luke Hughes said: "We became aware during the course of [Monday] that there were conversations circulating on social media about a gathering outside Wrexham Police station.

"By 7pm around twenty people were in attendance.

"They remained for around an hour.

"The group wore masks and generally social distancing was observed.

"Officers engaged to clarify the purpose of the gathering and anticipated time that they would remain until.

"All persons spoken to gave various reasons for attendance, some could not be specific, or were unclear.

"The decision had been made that no attempt to disperse the group would be made unless the situation deteriorated, and I’m grateful that this was never in question - the group being calm and not displaying any hostility."

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland has said he does "not see what the fuss is about" over the new powers.

He told MPs he has no second thoughts over the new measures contained in the bill, stating: "The particular provisions on protest are a reflection of the Law Commission's report of 2015 and indeed a reflection of the common law in England and Wales on public nuisance, which refers to - amongst other things - annoyance, serious annoyance and other terms which are well known to law.

"The maximum penalty in common law for public nuisance was life imprisonment and that's being reduced to 10 years. I really frankly do not see what the fuss is about."

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill cleared its first parliamentary hurdle on Tuesday.