Complaints concerned the apparent increase in number of city vendors

Licensing bosses in Worcester have had the permanent day-glo orange pitches painted at seven sites in the city centre to allow the public to recognise official vendors of the magazine.

The painted pitches, which feature the magazine's logo, were introduced after complaints that the number of vendors had increased and that several sellers had been acting aggressively towards potential customers.

The council believe the problem has been caused by unofficial vendors trying to sell the magazine.

Julian Pugh, Worcester's senior licensing and enforcement officer, said that despite a few complaints the city council's relationship with the publication for the homeless since its appearance in the early 1990's had generally been very good.

This initiative also protects the reputation of genuine vendors from the negative actions of rogue and unlicensed vendors who have used the magazine as a tool for aggressive begging Heidi Swift, the Big Issue

But the last few months have seen an increase in the number of reports of unofficial sellers, particularly in Angel Place and at the New Street end of the City Walls footbridge.

He believes that the painted markers are the best way of protecting both the sellers and the public from unofficial activity.

Unofficial sellers

He said: "While periodical and newspaper sellers don't need to be licensed, we still work closely with managers of the publication and the police to control the number of official sites and to check on the sellers themselves.

"The Big Issue sellers should display a badge to show that they are authorised sellers.

"By visibly marking out the agreed pitches the public knows that the site as well as the seller has been officially approved and that the site has also been agreed by us and by the police."

Heidi Swift, West Midlands area manager for the Big Issue, said the marker scheme initiative has already met with "tremendous success" in Nottingham and Brighton.

She said: "The public is immediately reassured that they are buying the genuine article from a genuine vendor who is using the magazine for the purpose for which it was designed - to allow socially-excluded individuals the chance to earn a legitimate income.

"This initiative also protects the reputation of genuine vendors from the negative actions of rogue and unlicensed vendors who have used the magazine as a tool for aggressive begging."