LONDON: In picturesque Windsor, in the shadow of the castle where Queen Elizabeth II spends her weekends, a dozen homeless people shelter from the cold in a jumble of blankets and cardboard boxes.

But with less than five months to go until the May 19 wedding of her grandson Prince Harry and US actor Meghan Markle in the mediaeval castle’s chapel, the local authority’s bid to sweep the homeless off the streets has triggered indignation.

Simon Dudley, the Conservative leader of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead council, has urged the local Thames Valley Police force to take action against their “aggressive begging and intimidation.”

“A large number of adults that are begging in Windsor are not in fact homeless,” he wrote in a letter, while those that were genuinely homeless had rejected secure accommodation in order to keep begging.

“This is creating a concerning and hostile atmosphere for our residents and the seven million tourists who come to Windsor each year.” The level of interest in Windsor, some 35 kilometres west of London, is “set to multiply” ahead of the royal wedding, he added.

According to the business valuation consultancy Brand Finance, the event should draw hundreds of thousands of extra tourists to the town, normally home to just 30,000 people, in 2018.

The British economy could be set to benefit to the tune of £500 million ($680 million, 565 million euros), they claimed.

Dudley said the genuinely homeless, having rejected help, were on the streets by “voluntary choice.”

Sheltering from the wintry wind, Stephanie, who has been in the town centre for two years after suffering mental illness, insisted: “I don’t choose to sit here.”

“Whatever people give me, they give me. I don’t choose to ask for money to get given something to eat, like sandwiches,” she said.

The council’s plans have been condemned by, among others, the Conservative MP for Maidenhead − Prime Minister Theresa May.

Murray James, the Windsor Homeless Project manager, was all the more shocked by the proposed clampdown as Harry and his brother Prince William have long been involved in work with the homeless − William having even slept rough by a bridge in London.