BOROUGH bosses have been urged to revive a campaign to get beggars off the streets of Blackburn town centre.

Senior Tory councillor John Slater wants the initiative rebooted as the numbers asking for cash from passers-by has started to rise.

Blackburn with Darwen Council leader Mohammed Khan admits beggars are returning to the town centre after the nine-month Street Reach project ended in June, but said a summit on the issue was planned for next month,

He warned that ‘chaotic lifestyles affected by substance and alcohol abuse’ were a major contributor to the problem.

The Street Reach project, launched in October last year, combined an appeal to visitors to Blackburn town centre not to give money to beggars with outreach workers seeking to get them into supported accommodation and those with alcohol and drug addictions into treatment.

Cllr Khan said: “The Street Reach project worked particularly well. At the start of the campaign we had 25 persistent beggars, and at the end we had 10.

“This specialist work stopped in June and since then we have unfortunately seen a steady increase in the numbers.”

Cllr Slater, leader of the borough council’s Conservative group, said: “This was a good project.

“It did get a lot of beggars of the streets of Blackburn town centre.

“Sadly since it stopped, the numbers have started to rise again as new beggars take their places.

“There are not as many as last year, but we need to revive and reboot the Street Reach scheme to stop more beggars coming in.

“We need to help those with drug and alcohol addictions get off the streets.”

Cllr Khan said: “These are major issues affecting towns and cities across the country. There are no quick or easy solutions.

“Everybody with a responsibility and interest will be coming together early next month.

“The Street Reach project saw outreach teams work directly to help get people begging off the streets and into support.

“We are continuing to do what we can with our limited resources and working in partnership to find radical, longer-term approaches.

“The number of hostels are a particular issue - we have over 500 hostel bed places alone in Blackburn.

“They attract people to come to the borough for accommodation from out of town.

“The challenge we now have is that year-on-year cuts, an increase in mental health cases and chaotic lifestyles affected by substance and alcohol abuse are contributing to an unsustainable situation.

“We have called an urgent multi-agency partnership session to agree a dynamic partnership approach that will aim to get the root of the problems and work back from there.”

n What do you think? Send a letter to lancsnews@nqnw.co.uk.