A charity director has defended her decision to ban homeless people from sleeping in the porch of a High Street shop.

Strood resident Steve Povey posted a picture online of a sign hanging in the window of Hospices of Hope in Rochester.

It reads: “Sleeping in the area is not permitted. Police action will be taken against anyone using the area for sleeping, leaving rubbish or any other waste.”

Mr Povey commented with the message: “Charity shop, but no charity for the homeless it seems.”

Hospices for Hope was set up in 1991 to help terminally-ill children and adults in countries across Europe including Romania, Moldova and Serbia.

Since then, it has cared for more than 40,000 patients and trained more than 20,000 health care professionals.

Mr Povey told the Medway Messenger: “Unfortunately I was moved to put something on social media.”

The 57 year-old, of Hawthorn Road, added: “We have a charity shop bringing in money for life-limited patients in Serbia and yet they are not prepared to be a bit charitable to the homeless.

“I think it doesn’t do the organisation any favours and is very harsh.

"There are more visibly homeless now than I’ve seen in the last 20 years.

"We should all look to ourselves and think how fortunate we are to have homes and safe environments.

“People become homeless for many reasons and to push them out of town centres isn’t dealing with the issue.”

But the charity’s Carolyn Perolls says she has been in contact with the council and police to resolve the issue and the sign is up to protect her staff.

She said: “It might seem harsh but having to clean human faeces on a daily basis is also harsh on our staff.

"We’re very supportive of the plight of homeless people but it’s not fair on our staff to have to clean up that type of thing every day.

“It’s a waste of time, our staff could be processing the donations kindly given to us by the local community rather than disinfecting the porch.

“We also have to spend time calling the police to move them on so we can start trading.

“We have been in contact with the police and council to get a satisfactory resolution on the situation.”