Rough sleepers with genuine problems should not be pigeon-holed alongside aggressive beggars who profit by hassling members of the public, a city councillor has warned.

Jock Coats was speaking after it was revealed Oxford had 27 rough sleepers, putting it ahead of bigger cities including Birmingham, with 19, and Manchester with 17.

The city's new Street Culture Task Force aims to tackle to problem of aggressive beggars - some with homes to go to after begging.

A poll on the Oxford Mail's website This Is Oxfordshire last week asked: Is Oxford too soft on homeless people?

Forty six readers voted that Oxford was a soft touch for the homeless, with 18 voting it was not.

But Cllr Coats, the vice-chairman of Oxford's housing committee, published his views on This is Oxfordshire's online forum, saying that, though there is some crossover, Oxford's rough sleepers are not responsible for the aggressive and professional begging which upsets the public. He said: "When the agencies do their head count of people sleeping rough they do so in the middle of the night - the people they count are not the opportunistic beggars or those who creep out during the day just to harass shoppers."

He said the rough sleepers were the ones who were "desperate and needy, not opportunistic and aggressive".

He said some rough sleepers may suffer mental health problems, and that the new night shelter, scheduled for construction next year, would offer homeless people greater access to experts who could help them.

Oxford 's rough sleepers unit officer Stephen Merauld agreed it was important not to regard beggars and rough sleepers as the same.

He said: "People tend to label them all together. Half of them are not rough sleepers. Half of them are begging professionally and have a home to go to."

Oxford's policy of taking homelessness seriously and providing high quality facilities for the homeless has encouraged more people to come here, Mr Merauld believes.

Two teams of outreach workers from the Salvation Army and the Elmore Team - which specialises in helping people with personality disorders - give rough sleepers advice, and refer them to hostels and night shelters.

City councillor Val Smith, a member of the Street Culture Task Force and a night shelter trustee, said: "A lot of those sleeping rough are young and you need to get to those as soon as you can."

She said the new night shelter would be more accessible, and offer more services, to people who wanted to get back to a normal life.

To join in the online discussion with Cllr Coats' - go to our FORUM