News

A crackdown on beggars by police and Westminster Council has been condemned by homelessness charities as creating barriers for those trying to escape poverty.

The council had estimated that there were as many as 300 beggars in the area, but just 27 people were arrested over two evenings.

Council officers worked in collaboration with the police to make arrests and take people's fingerprints and DNA. The council said the information gathered would help to provide evidence in the pursuit of antisocial behaviour orders against persistent beggars.

Bill Badham, development officer, National Youth Agency
"In Nottingham, under the slogan Change the Way you Give, we are encouraged to put change in collecting bins, not in the hands of beggars - after all, their dealer may be travelling first class on our generosity, says the poster campaign. Park benches are now being designed to be impossible to lie on. Our humanity is being sapped from us. But why not slap an Asbo on the insurance and bank companies with their junk mail and unsolicited phone calls instead. They're the real nuisance."

Martin Green, chief executive,Counsel and Care
"I broadly support the idea of trying to remove beggars from the street provided that it is accompanied by measures to address the causes of begging. I hope that it will single out aggressive begging, because this behaviour is both antisocial and intimidating. In general we need to act to reduce antisocial behaviour because it can seriously impact on the quality of life, particularly for some of the most vulnerable people in the community."

Bob Hudson, professor of partnership studies, Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham
"For more than 300 years, the poor and dispossessed have been seen as a threat in the minds of the metropolitan bourgeoisie. The heavy-handed Westminster strategy has more to do with making the area attractive to tourists than addressing the needs of the homeless. This all smacks of the Victorian Poor Law and frightening people away from poverty. Surely the issue needs to be understood and addressed, not simply hidden."

Felicity Collier, chief executive, Baaf Adoption and Fostering
"The low number of beggars 'rounded up' says it all. Those who beg through choice and represent the greatest threat will disappear very quickly when the word spreads on the street that an operation has begun. Some may be deterred but not many. Those who beg from necessity and are in despair will repeatedly end up in court and then in our prisons, which are expected to be full by next weekend. So more suicides, more vulnerable and desperate people - I am not sure the net result will be safer streets."

Julia Ross, social services director, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
"I wish we could be more coherent about this complex and troublesome problem. There is no point at all in Westminster taking unilateral action and no point in tackling this London-wide, and to some extent nationwide, problem in a piecemeal way. It's no surprise to hear that hardly any beggars were found in the audit, nor to hear that they will be back. I don't think it's helpful either for any of the concerned bodies to take a line that denies what we all know - that begging supports unacceptable behaviours as well as being the action of the desperate."