How many city beggars are genuine?

Unfortunately in this day and age most cities, including our own, have their share of people begging in the streets.

However, recent weeks have seen more of this in our city centre than ever before.

I have no doubt that many of them are in genuine need and distress, which should in itself spark an urgent discussion about what our authorities and the rest of us as individuals can do to help them.

There are other questions, however, which need to be raised.

How many of these people are possibly being dropped off each morning by people traffickers purely seeking to line their own pockets?

Could traffickers be profiting from the misery of those whom they leave standing daily in all weathers, only to expect them to hand over whatever cash the kind people of Stirling have presented them with in good faith?

Another question is how many of those begging in our streets are taking advantage of people’s eagerness to help to finance a lifestyle most people can only hope for.

Earlier this year police apprehended one man who had spent the day begging in the city centre, only to track him back to his luxury car at the end of the day.

This type of parasitical individual will surely be a rare entity and I am in no way suggesting this is the norm. However it is worth mentioning as we need to weed out those who are profiting without any real need while others are in greater need financially, because they are being exploited or indeed both.

name and address supplied

Congratulations to Stirling Council for the launch of the new Balfron social bus featured in last week’s Observer.

However, in spite of recent improvements, it is still difficult for residents from the western villages to easily access Stirling for all the services they require and readers may be not be aware that there is no public transport at all from Balfron to Stirling on a Sunday.

Not only does this mean a loss of revenue for city retailers but residents cannot attend churches, visit friends and family in hospital or go away for the weekend.

This also affects young people who want to stay over with friends on a Saturday evening but are unable to do this because they cannot get back in time to go to school or university on a Monday morning.

Lack of Sunday transport also meant that these residents could not attend the Christmas lights celebrations in November and, because Christmas Eve and Hogmanay fall on a Sunday this year, they will not be able to access shops in Stirling or travel on to family and friends on both these dates.

So while we are encouraged by this initiative and applaud any attempt to introduce more services, we urge councillors not to forget we have a long way to go in order to improve the basic rural transport services operated out of Balfron.

Valerie Brand, Buchlyvie