Begging will be a recordable offence

The city will target begging under tough new sanctions announced by Home Secretary David Blunkett.

Other areas of the country have been selected to clamp down on nuisance neighbours and the problem of abandoned cars.

It is part of a plan to help 10 "trailblazer" areas - places which will receive support from the government's anti-social behaviour unit for proving their determination to address problems in their communities.

Begging concerns

Mr Blunkett says the schemes are designed to "tackle the minority who are making life hell for the majority".

Mr Blunkett told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the plans were designed to make sure "that when the police, housing officers and environmental health do their job, the courts don't let them down".

Begging will become a recordable offence so that numbers of incidents are logged. Offenders could then face drug or alcohol treatment.

But Adam Sampson, from homelessness charity Shelter, warned ministers not to play politics with short term measures against beggars.

Police frustrated

"If government reaches only for punitive measures rather than for real solutions they won't tackle the problem of anti-social behaviour," he said.

The home secretary agreed that preventive measures were needed and said begging was only a "tiny part" of the plans.

But he said: "Simply leaving beggars to beg doesn't solve their problems."

Jan Berry, head of the Police Federation, said it outlined the problems currently facing officers.

"It is extremely frustrating for police officers to try to remove some of these young people from the streets when all they see is them going back on to the streets with no real sanction taking place," she said.