NEXT week, around 100,000 visitors will come to Worcester for the biggest shopping experience of the year.

The city plans to make itself as attractive as possible to the thousands who want to spend their hard-earned cash in our community in the run-up to Christmas.

But, as we report on Page 1 today, city shopkeepers are worried that the vagrants, drug-takers and drunks who sleep in their doorways will damage the city's image.

Forty businesses have become so concerned about the damage being done to trade that they are petitioning the city council to take action.

We're sure readers will have every sympathy with traders who, every morning, have to clear away urine, vomit and human excrement from their premises.

However, it's also clear that moving on the vagrants might work in the very short term - if the resources could be found to achieve it - but offers no long-term solution to a problem which plagues every city.

The grim news that St Paul's Hostel for the Homeless is regularly full is an indication of how much pressure is being placed on support services in our community.

What's needed is a far-sighted programme of help for those who, in many cases, have been forced to live on the streets through no fault of their own.

In our concerns to spruce up the city, we should remember that not every street-dweller is a worthless scrounger.

Many need help. Issues like greater investment in low-cost housing, better medical care and more hostel places, must be addressed before the vagrancy problem can be solved.