Traffic light beggars may be operating a 'shift system'

Councillor David Green (Lab, Wibsey) says there seems to be an “element of organisation” among those who approach cars at road junctions asking for cash, and says the issue is an “increasingly worrying” one.

He was speaking during a meeting discussing anti-social behaviour in the district on Thursday evening.

A report to members of the Council’s Corporate Scrutiny Committee said there had been an “overall improvement” in rates of anti-social behaviour in the district.

The report said: “The majority of ASB complaints received are related to youth nuisance (30 per cent) and nuisance use of motorcycles and quad bikes (32 per cent).

“Both areas have seen a decline in numbers reported compared to the previous year, in the case of youth nuisance there has been a decline of 11 per cent and for nuisance motorcycles 22 per cent.”

There had been a rise in complaints about anti social drinking, four per cent of all ASB reports, and of firework complaints, seven per cent of the total.

The report said: “It is recognised that while the numbers reported are relatively low, they are two of the most visible types of ASB.”

Members were told that 15 Criminal Behaviour Orders had been issued in the past year in a bid to stop the most “serious and persistent offenders.”

A report to the committee said 139 fixed penalty notices had been issued to people who break Public Space Protection Orders, which are in place to prevent street drinking and anti social driving.

Cllr Green, a former leader of Bradford Council, said whatever the figures showed, the perception of crime and anti-social behaviour could have a huge impact.

He said: “It is not just ASB in the city centre, it is town centres as well.

“It does influence people’s perception and the quality of people’s visit. I know there are reasons why we have people congregating in certain areas of the city – some of it is about access to services, sometimes it is because there are more doorways to sleep in.

“But one big ongoing issue is begging at traffic lights – it is becoming increasingly worrying.

“It must be particularly scary for women drivers on their own when you have someone banging on your window.

“There is not even the pretence that they will wash your window for money anymore, they just want money.

“There does seem to be a feel that there is some sort of organisation behind it – even if it is just a shift system that they have organised among themselves.

“I haven’t really seen an improvement in the city centre anti-social behaviour. It is intimidating, even if you are not involved in altercations.”

Councillor David Green

John Redding, who was recently appointed anti-social behaviour co-ordinator for Bradford Council, said the team were doing a lot of work looking at what existing legislation could achieve.

He said many of those involved with traffic light begging or street drinking had other issues in their lives, and support was offered to many.

He said: “While we are a compassionate city, but we can also look at being more assertive and use the powers we’ve got.

“We always look to support people first. Where people don’t engage with us we do have legislation to force them to accept support.”

Inspector Nick Haigh, of West Yorkshire Police, told members the partnership dealing with anti-social behaviour would look at support before enforcement.

He said: “A number of the criminal behaviour orders we obtained were for begging in the city centre, or begging at traffic lights.”

Councillor Brendan Stubbs fears people may have become resigned to anti-social behaviour (Image: newsquest)

Councillor Brendan Stubbs (Lib Dem, Eccleshill) suggested anti-social behaviour figures might be down because people had become resigned to the fact they would have to live with such behaviour.

He said: “Some members of the public have given up expecting things to be resolved or tackled.

“I’m concerned that before we promote a set of statistics, we don’t miss the fact that some people might be saying ‘screw this, I won’t ring the police.”

He was told that as well as a decrease in ASB reports there was an increase in “satisfaction” from ASB victims over how reports were dealt with, with satisfaction levels rising from 20 per cent in October 2022 to 69.7 per cent in September 2023.