BANISH the beggars - that's the call throughout Blackpool by people fed up of town centre tramps taking them for a ride.

Traders, the Town Centre Forum, and resort police are dishing out warnings that they will no longer tolerate drunks and vagrants who intimidate passers-by nor those who wrongly plead poverty and claim benefits at the same time.

Tales are rife of beggars shouting at people who choose to ignore them, harassing cash machine users, obstructing shop doorways, posing as street entertainers or collecting money at the same time as using mobile phones.

One trader told the Citizen: "It is even worse at night when the situation can become frightening. Hoteliers are telling us that some holidaymakers won't bring their families into the town centre at night because it's too intimidating.

"Also, some shoppers say they prefer to shop in other areas in order to avoid confrontation.

"It wasn't too bad last year when we had a better police presence in Blackpool. Obviously their resources are stretched to the limit but as ratepayers we shouldn't have to suffer - the town has already got the skids underneath it."

Measures taken so far by traders including sending a petition to figureheads throughout the county to raise awareness of the problem as well as explaining the situation to any visitors who might be tempted to hand over money.

There are, they concede, genuine beggars who have nowhere else to go, but the sheer numbers are causing consternation in the town.

So much so that the Town Centre Forum has linked up with a number of voluntary organisations to exchange information.

Town centre manager Nigel Hanson explains: "We have a town centre ranger who approaches anyone seen begging and if they are really in need will give them details of where they can get help."

As far as those who aren't genuine, he adds, their faces soon become known. "We will move them on but there's always the problem that as soon as your back is turned they will come back.

"It has been noticeably worse this year. We don't know why, but it looks as if Blackpool is being targeted. Through our safety and security working group we are also linking up with the police to try and bring about various actions.

"The intimidation side of things is totally unacceptable and we want to take a strong line against it."

Sergeant Rick Hoyle from Blackpool Police admitted some of the beggars could be nasty and added that they were getting wiser.

"They tend not to carry signs with hungry and homeless written on them anymore because they can be charged with obtaining money by deception which carries a stiffer sentence than vagrancy," he said.

"We can't prove they are not hungry but we can prove they're not homeless because they have an address to receive benefits. Some don't say anything at all so people feel more sorry for them."

Sgt Hoyle told the Citizen that a number of cases against town centre beggars are due to come before the courts in early October following a purge by police, adding: "We are also working in conjunction with the DSS as there are a lot of people earning a living out of begging and claiming at the same time.

"In a nutshell, yes we do know about the problem and yes we are doing something about it."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.