Napier mayor Bill Dalton has criticised police and Hawke's Bay District Health Board for not providing enough resources to address a growing begging problem in the city.
In a Talking Point Hawke's Bay Today column, councillor Tania Wright expressed a need for a coordinated approach to begging from people in Napier's CBD, many of whom had been left homeless due to drug addiction and mental health issues.
Responding to Ms Wright's piece, Mr Dalton said Napier City Council had been doing everything it could to address the "serious" problem, including working with other organisations to find a long-term solution but, in the short-term, police and HBDHB needed to provide more resources.
"Rest assured that the whole of NCC takes this extremely seriously, the last thing we want is beggars and drug addicts on our streets," he said.
However, police were the only ones with the power and training to remove these people and put them into the justice system where they could be referred to mental health and addiction services run by HBDHB, Mr Dalton said