'Vile begging tax' for Worthing town centre is scrapped

Known as a public space protection order (PSPO) it was introduced by Worthing Borough Council in 2016 under the Conservatives at a time when concerns about ‘aggressive’ street begging in the town centre was rife.

But the move was also widely condemned and a petition with 86,000 signatures argued it would target the homeless and, in the words of new cabinet member for community wellbeing Rosie Whorlow, ‘send them into a debt spiral’.

The Anti Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act (2014) gave councils the power to implement PSPOs to ‘prevent or deal with a particular nuisance or problem that is detrimental to the local community’s quality of life’.

Across Worthing town centre, ‘aggressive’ beggars could be fined £50 or taken to court and fined £1,000 if they failed to comply.

At a meeting of the newly formed Joint Strategic Sub-Committee on Tuesday (5 July) Worthing’s Labour cabinet members voted to scrap the order.

This means the begging PSPO will end on 21 August 2022 – six years after it was first introduced.

A report said that continuing the measure would be ‘disproportionate’ due to ‘insufficient evidence’ that aggressive begging remains a problem.

“This has largely been due to the increased support to those facing homelessness and financial hardship that has been provided by Adur and Worthing Councils’ street outreach team and One Stop support to access financial assistance and employment support,” explained the report.

Cabinet member for regeneration Martin McCabe said the order saw the town’s name ‘dragged through the mud’.

Following the meeting, he tweeted: “Tonight we scrapped Worthing’s Tory begging tax. A vile policy that dragged our town’s name through the mud.

“This was what got me involved in local politics, [the] first protest I’d ever been on. A sweet moment.”

All of the council’s PSPOs will now be reviewed on a yearly basis.

When the measure was first agreed in 2016, opposition councillors felt it would ‘pick on the poor and the vulnerable’, but Conservatives pointed to a three-stage warning system before any fixed penalty notices for disobeying the orders were handed out.