Southampton City Council ditched homeless fines implemented in Poole

Southampton City Council have told The Breaker that they have scrapped fines for homeless people, as a similar scheme is introduced in Poole town centre.

Since fining 33 rough sleepers from April 2017, Southampton City Council revealed only one person managed to pay it.

A spokesperson from Southampton City Council said they have turned to different tactics to tackle begging and rough sleeping in the city instead.

However, from today, Poole is to begin to fine people £100 for begging for food or money, sleeping rough or drinking in public. The measures are meant to prevent anti-social behaviour and will only be in place in certain areas of Poole.

Poole Borough Council has yet to respond.

This isn’t the first action taken to prevent homeless people from sleeping rough in Dorset. Earlier this week, Bournemouth put metal bars on benches to prevent people from sleeping on them.