In response to "A different way to give to beggars" (The Argus, August 11), let's hope Ken Bodfish and Brighton and Hove City Council can run this scheme better a second time around, after the farce of 2001.
Amid a blaze of publicity for the Begging For Change campaign, a Government-backed charity scheme, the council's chief executive David Panter, broadcaster Simon Fanshawe, ex-cabinet minister Mo Mowlam and homeless tsar Louise Casey got their pictures in the paper and on local TV at the grand launch.
We were only to find out three years later the scheme had collapsed without a penny being spent because nobody knew who was supposed to be running it and £1,300 which had been collected was sitting idle in a bank account.
Nobody seemed to know at the time how many collection boxes there were, where they were located and who held the keys to them.
The council insisted the scheme had nothing to do with it, despite its chief executive being involved in publicising its launch.
-Nigel Bowles, Brighton
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