The reality of Brighton’s begging problem has come into sharp focus during the pandemic.

With all rough sleepers having been offered accommodation, food and support for nearly a year now, supported by £6.4 million in Government funding, many residents have been surprised to see regular begging continuing as usual across the city.

This has led Andy Winter of Brighton Housing Trust to speak frankly to The Argus, describing begging as the “elephant in room” that needs to be looked at by our city council.

He said begging has very little to do with homelessness and rough sleeping but everything to do with addictions.

People beg on the streets to feed that addiction and by donating spare change you are more likely to be feeding people’s addictions than their hunger, he has said.

Following on from Andy Winter’s remarks, Conservative Councillor Dawn Barnett has put forward a positive proposal for our city to address this elephant in the room and make a positive difference to peoples’ lives here.

Cllr Barnett has suggested that rather than continuing with the status quo, which clearly isn’t working or leading to better lives for those begging, the council should look at rolling out a cashless donation scheme similar to that currently being implemented in the Windsor and Maidenhead authority.

The principle is simple – rather than provide loose change to beggars on the street, residents are instead asked to make donations through cashless donation points across the city.

This funding support is then translated into tailored individual programmes run by our homeless charities to address addiction problems, break the cycle and allow beggars to leave their life on the street behind.

Conservative housing spokeswoman Mary Mears has spoken to her counterpart at Windsor and Maidenhead Council to learn more about the scheme.

The feedback is the initial rollout worked well and the council is hopeful it is making a difference to many peoples’ lives.

Windsor and Maidenhead is a unitary authority like Brighton and Hove. It is also a tourist destination. As a similar council we should take notice of their successful policies.

Cllr Barnett’s proposal has triggered a debate in the pages of The Argus and beyond over the last fortnight.

Jim Deans from Sussex Homeless Support said he had concerns that if such a cashless scheme was brought in here beggars would turn to crime to get their fix if begging starts to fail.

But Andy Winter has supported the idea and said a cashless system is an idea for the times.

Cllr Barnett, Jim Deans and Andy Winter discussed the issue on BBC Radio Sussex and there was a positive response from listeners for Cllr Barnett’s proposal.

As Andy Winter said in that discussion, making a cashless donation is not about ignoring people on the street. The best thing that you can do is provide a hot drink or a sandwich and engage in conversation – but not provide loose change.

So what would it take to implement such a scheme in Brighton and Hove?

We have everything we need to deliver such a programme.

The mechanics of implementing a cashless donation scheme would be simple – Windsor and Maidenhead have started with four retail shops and even an estate agency for their cashless points. I am sure there would be many shops in Brighton that would volunteer to take the cashless donations.

We have the charities that would be ready to help with providing individual tailored programmes – the 2019 Brighton Street Directory published and commissioned by Sussex Homeless Support shows the level of institutional support that is provided to help the homeless locally, listing 43 organisations and mapping out where people can access support.

And we have a large communications department at the city council that can co-ordinate the message to residents and to those in need on the streets.

We also have an experienced and sympathetic local police force that know the city well.

But at the moment we are missing one key thing – leadership from the council.

When Councillor Barnett asked at the full council meeting last week whether the Green-Labour coalition administration would consider this proposal, the answer she received was that they were already doing enough.

It will take the city-wide effort led by our council to make a positive difference to the lives of those on the street and end begging.