COMEDIAN and activist Mark Thomas led a crowd of protesters through Oxford yesterday to demonstrate against a proposed public spaces protection order (PSPO).

Along with councillors, campaign groups and residents, Mr Thomas placed a series of cardboard ‘beggar traps’ – giant mouse-traps with a cup of tea inside – emblazoned with the Oxford City Council logo outside the council’s offices and the town hall.

If approved by the council’s city executive board on Thursday, the PSPO would ban a range of behaviours from the city centre.

Among them is ‘persistent and aggressive begging’, punishable by a £100 on-the-spot fine or a £150 fine at magistrates’ court.

Mr Thomas, 52, said: “It appears to us that beggars are being entrapped into criminality and debt. If you are going to bring in a fine, how are beggars going to pay it? They’re making up policy without the building blocks to see it through. It’s the Labour Hyacinth Bucket; they’re concerned only with appearances.”

This week the city council received a second letter from human rights group Liberty questioning the legality of the PSPO.

Green councillor David Thomas added: “Usually one letter from Liberty is enough to make people think. Oxford is so arrogant that it needs two.”