A move to tackle aggressive begging and rough sleepers on Southend High Street is expected to come into force before Christmas.
Southend Council’s Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), which promises to bring fines of £100 against rough sleepers and ‘aggressive’ beggars in the heart of Southend, has taken almost five months to be implemented but the council now says it will be in operation before Christmas.
I note they didn't say
which Christmas....
...it has come under fire from rights groups who believe it will criminalise the homeless. Some residents have also questioned how people who are homeless would be expected to pay financial penalties.
Josie Appleton, director of the freedom group, the Manifesto Club, said in August that the order could “severely restrict homeless people’s ability to feed themselves and survive outside in cold weather”.
Human rights group Liberty also raised objections during the council’s public consultation, writing in a six-page letter that it would be “unlawful and unreasonable”.
Why doesn't Liberty consider that being forced to dodge aggressive junkies begging in the high street on your way to work or shop, or having to mop up human excrement or urine or used needles from your shop doorway, is 'unlawful and unreasonable', I wonder?
I expect the likes of Penise and Jaded, who are easily disposed to arresting vulnerable, homeless folk on any invented charge, will readily endorse your narrow view, JuliaM.
ReplyDeleteAny decent human has sympathy for the real homeless and contempt for those who masquerade as such in order to profit from our sympathy. Just remember that the lifestyles you and I may enjoy are sustained for as long as we do not fall into the numerous traps that lay in daily wait for us.
I may be accused of taking the moral high ground but I experienced a lasting grief when one of our Town's well-known homeless lady beggars died of hypothermia a few Winters ago. Just remember that a few of our compatriots suffer greatly whilst we remain warm and well fed; the factors which maintain our thin veneer of grace.
It is rather difficult to see where the money will come from to pay fines, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI am a hard bastard who has absolutely no sympathy for a street beggar on a warm summer's day, but even my hard heart softens when the weather turns cold and the poor blighter is shaking, even if it isn't just the cold but an effect of addiction.
I don't believe there is any reason for someone not suffering from a mental disease to be without shelter in this country.
ReplyDelete"...but even my hard heart softens when the weather turns cold and the poor blighter is shaking, even if it isn't just the cold but an effect of addiction."
ReplyDeleteMy heart doesn't soften a bit.
"I don't believe there is any reason for someone not suffering from a mental disease to be without shelter in this country."
There isn't.