THESE are the words of a rough sleeper in the heart of Warrington town centre from the early hours of Saturday.

They are still ringing in my ears.

I heard these words because I was with a team of fellow ecologists carrying out bat surveys on buildings in Warrington’s Cultural Quarter.

In the process of our work we encountered a number of rough sleepers and a countless number of rats.

On the whole, despite disturbing their fitful sleep, the rough sleepers were remarkably tolerant of our nocturnal presence and were naturally curious about what we were doing.

Towards the culmination of our night’s work it all became too much for one of them and he complained bitterly and with much desperate frustration to one of my colleagues as to why we were there to help protect bats but not him.

His precise words were ‘I’m a human being, why won’t you help me?’.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that this is a bats versus people issue.

I and one of my fellow bat ecologists also happen to broadcast in the regular early morning NatureWatch slot on BBC Radio Merseyside each Saturday.

We have both noticed an exponential rise in the numbers of people sleeping rough in Liverpool town centre during that time.

Back in 2010 I might occasionally see one rough sleeper in my 400- metre walk to the studio from where I park my car.

Today that number is nearer to 20.

It is clear this is happening in every town and city across the UK.

There is only one reason for it – Government policy.

Following the 2008 financial crash and a change in government in 2010 the policy has been to squeeze the poorest in society and starve local government of funds that provide support for those most vulnerable in our communities.

The cuts to mental health, social care and benefits is having inevitable results.

A few of you reading this will seek to blame the rough sleepers for their own misfortune, perhaps because you see them as addicts.

Believe you me I think most of us would seek oblivion if we had to sleep in rat-infested alleyways.

I despair of a society that fails to support the weak and vulnerable, while providing tax cuts for the wealthiest, including the bankers whose addiction to casino style gambling created the financial crisis that lead to the policy of austerity in the first place.

I’m haunted by that man’s words, so I’m doing something. I write this letter to bring their plight to the attention of my MP, the authorities, to the people of Warrington.

JEFF CLARKE Penketh