Council approves 'outright ban' on begging in Luton town centre

Residents “feel unsafe and intimidated” and street beggars are a significant factor, a borough council executive meeting heard.

A change to the town centre public spaces protection order (PSPO) relating to begging was agreed by the committee.

This will see tougher rules implemented against street beggars, as well as extending the current PSPO zone to include the Galaxy Centre.

“Anti-social behaviour has been on a steady decline, but begging has been stable,” said Labour Lewsey councillor Aslam Khan.

“The footfall in our town centre is declining and one of the major reasons is people feel unsafe and intimidated.

“The current PSPO enables our officers to ask people to stop begging, but they move on and return after an hour or probably the next day.

“It doesn’t send a clear message to some of these people, and it’s confusing for the enforcement officers.

"Instead of failing to stop begging [the new PSPO] will be asking for an outright ban."

The executive approved the previous town centre PSPO in June 2018, which lists seven prohibited behaviours including drinking, urinating and dogs not kept on leads.

Labour South councillor Paul Castleman asked how many of those caught begging had refused council help.

Councillor Khan, executive member for communities, said: “There have been 65 people, with more than 270 interactions.

“We are continuing with our restorative approach offering them all sorts of services, such as food, shelter and housing, and we engage them in a collaborative way with a multi-agency approach.

“At times, we find people are not taking up the offer and are continuing to beg, which has a detrimental effect on our town centre and a negative impact on our economy.

“If people are not going to the town centre, it will be closing,” he added. “Something needs to be done.

“The change of wording will give us another tool to deter people from begging.”

Vicky Hawkes, from the council’s community safety team, said: “We have dealt with 65 people in the context of begging.

“While I can’t say how many didn’t take up the offer because that is a difficult question, what we can say with certainty is that everyone is offered access to help.

“The reason it’s hard to answer is that some people take up the offer, but continue to beg.

“Some take up part of the offer and carry on begging.”

Councillor Castleman said: “You still haven’t convinced me why taking away failure to stop will make the slightest bit of difference.

“Or are you saying to me you’re going to issue fixed penalty notices to people you know can’t pay?”

Councillor Khan responded: “By having an outright ban on begging it will give us that power to have that extra tool to enforce and stop them.

“We’ve tried our current approach and it’s not working, so we need to do something different.”