PEOPLE in Glasgow want more support offered for people begging in the streets.

A public survey found more than half said help with housing and services was the best way of addressing street begging.

Yesterday the Evening Times reported how one in three businesses wanted to see enforcement action like criminalising begging to reduce the number of beggars of the streets.

Today the results of a public survey carried out at the same time by Community safety Glasgow found the carrot rather than the stick to be the preferred option.

The survey of 3400 people who visit the city centre found most people to be affected by begging in the afternoon.

However the majority, 70%, said there were not or rarely affected by aggressive begging.

Those were said it was in the form of persistent begging or threatening behaviour and shouting.

A small amount, 6%, said they had witnessed beggars being subject to harassment, abuse of being attacked by a member of the public.

Even more people, nine out of ten, said they didn’t report problems associated with begging.

More than half, 55%, of people said they would like to see more investment should be provided to beggars rom charities and public bodies particularly for housing.

The survey is part of a report into the nature and scale of begging in Glasgow City Centre produced by Community Safety Glasgow.

The research with the public and city centre businesses is to be used to inform the strategy to deal with begging.

In the report, Eileen Marshall, Director of Community Safety Glasgow, said begging was a complicated issue and needed a solution that addressed a variety of underlying causes.

She said: “If we hope to address the complex nature of begging then there is a need to establish a begging strategy for Glasgow that recognises the complex issues and involved a multi disciplinary group of statutory and third sector agencies.

“And establish a public awareness campaign to encourage a greater understanding of services available for vulnerable and homeless people.”

On a day accompanying the Simon Community street team in Glasgow city centre earlier this month, the Evening Times witnessed several cases of street begging on teh main city centre streets.

Most were begging to feed an addiction to either drink or drugs and were begin until hey had enough money to satisfy their habit that day.

Some were rough sleepers, others were in some form of temporary accommodation in the city.

The survey found that one in five people gave money to beggars and 13% gave food and drinks.

The majority, two thirds, said they avoided beggars.

Many people thought there was links to organised crime and organised begging was being conducted by people and families from Eastern European countries.