WHILE musical preference is a subjective matter, I can't imagine many people enjoy the 'performances' of some of the buskers in our town centres.

Busking can be an asset to a town centre. You see some performers who are truly talented musicians that draw in a crowd.

Then there are the buskers who, if we're being brutally honest, are only incompetently playing an instrument and/or singing as a form of begging. While, as a society, we should be offering these people the help they need, we also have to think of the impact they have on the town centre and the people who live and work there.

If you lived or worked within earshot of someone noisily murdering tune after tune all day long, you'd want them ordered to stop. The same goes for if you have a business and that busker is literally driving people away.

That's why I agree with the approach being taken in Princesshay, Exeter where buskers have to audition before being allowed to perform. There has to be some level of quality control.