YORK residents and visitors are being urged to back a major campaign to crack down on bogus beggars.

People are being encouraged not to hand over cash in the street, but to give cash to homelessness charities instead in an effort to make sure genuine beggars get the help they need.

Shops, guest houses and hotels will all be asked to take part in the campaign, by displaying boxes collecting cash for homelessness charities.

Alongside the charitable collections, a new task group, named City Centre Pride (CCP) will see police officers talking to beggars in York city centre then taking the information back to CCP.

Members of CCP, which includes groups working with the homeless, council staff and Safer York Partnership workers as well as the police, will then share the information they have gathered.

Prosecutions may then be brought in some cases, while other people may be referred to a wide range of groups, such as drug treatment agencies. Jane Mowat, of Safer York Partnership, said: "We are happy to work with people who have genuine needs but people who come here just to beg will face enforcement action."

Senior city council housing officer Lesley Healey has also urged people not to give cash to the beggars.

She said York has a reputation as a lucrative spot to beg, which encourages both genuine and fake beggars to travel to York.

She said once in York some people were sleeping on the streets, keeping York's number of people classed as street homeless above the Government target of four or below.

Not meeting that target could jeopardise funding for various homelessness projects.

Ms Healey said: "Not everyone who begs is homeless and not everyone who is homeless begs.

"But we don't want people to give money to people begging in the street.

"If people want to help, they should give money to agencies such as the Arc Light or Peasholme centres, or to The Salvation Army."

Only this week, senior North Yorkshire police officers were tackling the begging problem as part of a "back to the beat" initiative in York.

Officers have said they believe many of the city's beggars may not be genuine, but this summer, York's police commander John Lacy said arresting beggars was not the solution. He later called for the whole York community to work together and tackle the issues behind begging.

Updated: 10:45 Saturday, November 22, 2003