City's plan to ban begging blocked

A CONTROVERSIAL bid by Aberdeen City Council to become the first local authority in Scotland to outlaw begging from its streets, has been rejected by the Scottish Executive.

The city council applied for permission to bring in a new by-law, imposing a blanket ban on begging, in response to growing public disquiet about the number of beggars in the city centre.

The by-law would have made it an offence to beg anywhere in Aberdeen - punishable by a fine or imprisonment. But the Scottish Executive has now ruled out the measure, claiming that councils and the police already have sufficient legal powers to combat aggressive begging.

Anna Cossar, policy adviser to the Executive's criminal justice division, told the council: "Scottish Executive policy is that, in general, by-laws should not duplicate existing offence provisions. Aggressive begging is already addressed by Common Law (breach of the peace) and by statute - the Civic Government Act and Antisocial Behaviour Act. Under these circumstances we are not convinced of the need to introduce a new by-law."

The council first sought permission to introduce the by-law last summer after a report to the authority revealed that at least 25 people were begging regularly in the city centre.

Many were said to be "professional" beggars who returned to their homes in the suburbs after a day on the pavements of Union Street and concerns were expressed about the intimidation used by some beggars to obtain money from members of the public.

The move to bring in the by-law was led by the Safer Aberdeen Group, whose chairman, Martin Greig, is the Liberal Democrat councillor for the Ashley ward.

Mr Greig said yesterday he was disappointed at the Scottish Executive's rejection of the by-law which would have been a simple solution to the problem.

He said: " We wanted to have an official policy to deter beggars from coming onto the streets. What we are going to have to do now is to try and step up our publicity campaign to encourage members of the public not to give to beggars in the first place. We wouldn't have beggars if people didn't give them money."

He said while some beggars were in genuine need, others caused "mild irritation" or were aggressive and anti-social.

"Those who are genuinely in need can go to various services - the council, the homelessness unit or various charities to get help. But the major problem we face is that they do receive a lot of income from the public and the numbers of beggars at night time in the city centre are very high. And that is because people who are drunk come out of the pubs and clubs and feel very generous to humanity in general."