New orders must be fair for all

They say beggars can’t be choosers, but in a new crackdown in the city they can be criminalised.

Certainly that’s the view of the human rights campaign group Liberty, which has huge concerns about the use of new Public Space Protection Orders.

Throughout the city, signs have gone up warning of the new orders which are aimed at restricting and reducing nuisances.

Liberty campaigners, as their name suggests, generally hate restrictions - particularly those imposed by authorities.

The public, generally, has a different view.

There can be few complaints about the council cracking down on anti-social activities like boozing, bin-raking, street peddling, failing to control dogs and the use of psychoactive substances.

None of these are welcome in the public arena.

In the case of the restrictions being imposed on beggars, however, Liberty’s opposition is not without some merit.

They argue that people who beg do so out of desperation.

They are in such extreme poverty that their actions are not a choice or anti-social behaviour, but a necessity to survive.

Hitting them with huge fines they can’t possibly pay (they can be ordered through the courts to pay as much as £1,000) only makes matters worse.

Sunderland folk are generous and caring. They want to help the vulnerable.

People in genuine poverty need help, not punishment, and we trust the new PSBOs take this into account. They must be targeted at the nuisances, not the genuinely destitute.

The wording of the orders suggest this will be the case, but we wait to see how they work in practice.