A beggar sits in the Square by Bruce Watt Photography. The city council is looking for ways to get beggars off the streets.

Palmerston North's softly-softly approach to beggars has been labelled a failure, and city councillors want them declared nuisances so they can be sent packing.

Mayor Grant Smith said "the group hug" theory had not worked, and it was time to look at using a bylaw to regulate the behaviour of a handful of people giving Broadway Ave and The Square a really bad look.

Cr Susan Baty led the charge to instruct staff to investigate how to write beggar controls into the Nuisance Bylaw that is being reviewed this year.

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"I'm sick and tired of having the city held to ransom by two or three people. It's time to take action.

"I would like to be able to give them a red sticker, and if they are there again, for them to be towed away."

Smith and Baty said they had been fielding frequent phone calls from retailers complaining about beggars constantly outside their door, some of them just taking up space, but some who targeted women customers in particular and were abusive when refused money.

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They said some retailers felt intimidated, and reported that their customers felt uncomfortable too.

Square jeweller Ross Hyde said it was hard to quantify the effect the presence of beggars had on business.

"But it's a look we don't need to have. From an appearance point of view, it looks dreadful.

"We have this small amount of really nice retail space outside the Plaza, and what have we got? People sitting there begging, under the illusion they create themselves that they need money for food and shelter. It's not true."

Hyde said the Give Wisely education campaign encouraging people to give money to welfare groups rather than directly to beggars had not been successful.

But Safety Advisory Board chairman Brett Calkin defended the campaign.

He said 10 per cent of people knew about the campaign, and for a $5000 budget, that had been a significant impact. It no longer had any money.

"It's a bit harsh to say it failed.

"Begging is a long term problem that you don't solve, you manage it very carefully."

Calkin questioned the wisdom of passing a bylaw that turned beggars into criminals, and said there would be a significant cost to enforcing it.

Downtown manager Greg Key said there was no easy answer.

The presence of beggars was a real turn-off for people, and frustrating for retailers trying to create a positive environment.

"We see people giving them money, to make them go away, or because they think they are needy.

"It's an easy income if you have nothing else to do."

Greg thought people who said it was not a problem would feel differently if they had someone sitting outside their home all the time.

Cr Annette Nixon voted against the committee's recommendation to explore regulation of begging.

She was not satisfied the council had good evidence that the problem had become worse, and that education had been unsuccessful.

She said people had a right to be in a public place, and denying them that right could add to social isolation and mental health problems.

Council policy analyst Peter Ridge will have the job of researching and getting legal advice on what powers the council had for making begging an offence under the Nuisance Bylaw.

The solution could involve requiring people to obtain a licence for street activities such as busking or collecting for charity, and without a licence, they could be asked to move on.