A joint initiative aimed at addressing the root causes of begging on the streets of Perth has been launched.
Police Scotland is getting together with the council and various other agencies in an effort to understand what has driven a perceived increase in begging in the centre of the city.
The move was revealed when Councillor Ann Gaunt tackled Chief Superintendent Paul Anderson at the council’s community safety committee on the issue on behalf of local traders.
“I know there is a problem in the centre, particularly around Ropemakers Close, I wondered what powers the police have to move them on,” she asked.
Mr Anderson of D Division (Tayside) told the meeting that begging was not an offence as such, unless local authorities passed bye laws, as had been done in some English cities.
“If it becomes more aggressive it may stray into anti-social behaviour, we will deal with it when there is a safety issue,” he said.
Mr Anderson said that had not been an appetite to criminalise begging locally and the efforts which are to be made were more about helping people and tackling the social issues which led to people begging.
Substance abuse was sometimes a factor and he said as part of the drive to help the situation community wardens were engaging with the beggars as “the police are not normally their favourite people”.
Roddy Ross of the Safer Communities Team at the council said that passive begging had become part of the streetscape of many cities and he favoured attempting to help rather than criminalise those involved.
“We are trying to dislodge them from the lifestyle and get them in to more fruitful pursuits,” he told the meeting of the aims of the initiative.
Chief Inspector Maggie Pettigrew, area commander for Perth and Kinross, agreed that they should take a “holistic approach ” to begging, treating it as a social issue.
Councillor Heather Stewart, who represents a city centre ward and also lives centrally , welcomed the efforts being made to tackle something that was often raised with her.
It was recently claimed that failure to tackle the issue is undermining Perth’s efforts to grow tourism.
