Today we launch a campaign urging people in Brighton and Hove not to give money to beggars.

Many people, through kindness or fear, hand cash to beggars hoping it will be used to provide much-needed food and shelter.

But the chances are that instead it's going on addiction to alcohol or dangerous drugs.

Many of them collect £200 a week and spend most of it on heroin.

Some beggars are genuinely down on their luck. Others are bogus, cynically exploiting the willingness of passers-by to get cash.

This is not a vendetta against the many people in Brighton and Hove who are sleeping on the streets, or who are in grotty bedsits.

It is a campaign to give money where it's needed, and that is to the organisations dealing with these problems rather than to the beggars themselves.

There are plenty of trusts and agencies in Brighton and Hove which are carrying out difficult and sometimes dangerous work with homeless people, drug addicts or alcoholics.

Some are a mixture of all three and in addition have mental health problems.

There's no way they are going to spend any money they are given other than to make their problems worse.

People who give cash to beggars often do so for the best of reasons.

But they are hindering rather than helping the beggars. It's far better to give to agencies which really know how to make best use of it.

Much of the cash given to beggars each day lands up in the pockets of the drug dealers and barons whose activities blight society and wreck lives.

Those who disagree with our campaign say it will encourage crime. But there are already scores of crimes committed every week by addicts fuelling their habit.

This campaign aims to get the beggars off the streets and into the care of organisations who can help solve their problems.

These agencies have already received backing from Brussels, the British Government and the borough council.

But a concerted effort is now needed to deal with this blight on Brighton and Hove which, despite their best efforts, is increasing.

Our radical campaign will not only help people down on their luck but will also aid the prosperity of Brighton and Hove.

We want to deprive beggars of the need to be on the street and get rid of the impostors who think we are a soft touch.

And we want to eliminate a problem that has been a scourge of Brighton and Hove for far too many years.

The organisations dealing with it need all the cash they can get. Give your spare change to them, not to the beggars.