ONCE again a number of readers have contacted The Argus with their views on the city’s beggars.

However these, and others in the past, never seem to raise the point that begging is a two-way activity: beggars beg and people give.

I read recently that one Sussex town was considering bringing in some form of regulation to clamp down on begging.

That, however, will only work if a similar law is applied to people giving money to beggars.

If there are no givers then begging will become pointless and will quite simply grind to a halt.

Furthermore, many of those who do give their money, believing quite sincerely that they are doing something worthwhile, are clearly unaware of where many of their donations finish up.

It is a fact that the vast majority of beggars are not penniless; they are in receipt of some form of cash state benefit which, coupled with subsidised housing, food banks and soup runs, means that they are not in the total destitute condition that many of them claim to be in.

If the public want to give then the best way is to make donations directly to a charity of their choice, for example Brighton Housing Trust.

In this way they can be assured that their money will be spent wisely; it certainly won’t finish up being spent on alcohol and drugs.

Eric Waters, Ingleside Crescent, Lancing