{"id":28510,"date":"2019-02-19T11:50:13","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T11:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/?p=28510"},"modified":"2019-02-19T11:56:19","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T11:56:19","slug":"clampdown-on-insistent-begging-on-stratford-road-sparkbrook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/19\/clampdown-on-insistent-begging-on-stratford-road-sparkbrook\/","title":{"rendered":"Clampdown on insistent begging on Stratford Road Sparkbrook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Locals are furious demanding action to tackle \u2018aggressive\u2019 beggars along the Stratford Road, A34. One plain clothes officer was approached five times by one beggar.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Residents claim dishonest beggars have taken over the busy main road at the junction of Walford Road in\u00a0Sparkbrook, \u201cintimidating\u201d pedestrians, drivers and increasing anti social behaviour.<\/p>\n

While there was great sympathy conveyed for the genuinely vulnerable, locals begged police and the council to start\u00a0clamping down on organised beggars\u00a0who they claim are ‘working in shifts’.<\/p>\n

Mohammed Ashraf, from the\u00a0Fallows Road Residents Association, said while he understood there were those who had truly fallen on hard times, people felt “intimidated” when approached by beggars.<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s something that needs to be tackled”, he said.<\/p>\n

One woman said: \u201cI do have sympathy for these people, you assume they are homeless, destitute and suffering however over the last month or two, I\u2019ve noticed there\u2019s a pattern, they\u2019re coming in, going, they take different positions and they go home in a gang.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s arranged in a systematic way of making money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another man said such beggars were taking advantage of the generosity of the community who \u201cwant to help\u201d those in need.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to eradicate these problems. Ok, if one or two are homeless, we will find a way to help them but this is not the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sparkbrook resident Mary Mockbell, said: \u201cI feel very, very intimidated by people running up to my car banging on the window, it\u2019s intimidating to me, especially as a lady driver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhor Malik, councillor for Balsall Heath, said: \u201cThey are operating in shifts, we get X amount coming in the day and in the evening another one comes. It\u2019s aggressive begging.<\/p>\n

It was agreed the situation was complex, needed a multi-agency approach and could not be solved by merely arresting people.<\/p>\n

Chris Hamilton, from the Community safety Partnership, said: \u201cEveryone had a different need. Not every beggar will have the same support, the same action plan against them.<\/p>\n

“We have to look at the most effective way to deal with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have to do is look at what\u2019s putting them there in the first place. We have got to look at all the different agencies involved in trying to create a better community for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

PC Matt Bowditch said he was not aware of beggars working in shifts but possible solutions included the use of Public Space Protection Orders and civil injunctions.<\/p>\n

PC Bowditch said: \u201cStratford Road is one of the busiest roads in the city due to the numerous vehicles that pass through that junction. We need to educate the public that we are not giving them money.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also advocated setting up\u00a0Streetwatch patrols\u00a0and educating the public not to give money in the first place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Locals are furious demanding action to tackle \u2018aggressive\u2019 beggars along the Stratford Road, A34. One plain clothes officer was approached five times by one beggar. Residents claim dishonest beggars have taken over the busy main road at the junction of Walford Road in\u00a0Sparkbrook, \u201cintimidating\u201d pedestrians, drivers and increasing anti social behaviour. While there was great […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,37,3,112],"tags":[1972,1811,1971],"class_list":["post-28510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-local-news","category-news","category-top-stories","tag-fallows-road-residents-association","tag-sparkbrook","tag-stratford-road"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}