A Government U-turn on prostitution tolerance zones has been welcomed by a Birmingham councillor who spearheaded a campaign to drive the sex trade out of a residential suburb of the city.
It is understood a zero tolerance campaign against kerb crawlers and prostitutes will be launched next month, signalling the end of the Govern-ment's proposed licensed "red zones".
The first major review of prostitution laws since 1954 is being seen as the next phase in the Prime Minister's drive against anti-social behaviour.
* Tell us your view on this story. Get in touch by email, messageboard or by sending a web letter to the editor *
Councillor Deirdre Alden (Con Edgbaston), a prime mover in the Rotten Park Action Group which campaigned against prostitution in her ward by using resident patrols and Asbo powers, welcomed the shift in Government thinking.
Coun Alden helped draft Birmingham City Council's response to a Home Office national debate on the problem last autumn which called for a zero tolerance approach.
She said: "I am glad it appears the Government has listened to the experience of people who have actually tackled this on the ground.
"It is simply not acceptable to have prostitution happening in the streets where children live.
"I understand the idea that clamping down simply moves the problem on elsewhere but, to be honest, I was expecting more councillors jumping up and down about the problem suddenly landing in their wards.
"But that hasn't happened." She admitted the prostitutes may have moved on to other cities but said: "At some point, as a city councillor, you have to have responsibility to your own city first."
Before losing control of Birmingham City Council, the previous Labour administration planned to set up a "tolerance zone" in the city, attracting criticism from the Catholic Church.
Cities such as Liverpool have been pressing hard for the powers to set up legal prostitution zones. However the Government is said to favour better policing rather than wholesale changes to legislation.
Home Office Minister Fiona Mactaggart said: "I'm not tolerant of the view that prostitution is the oldest profession in the world and there's nothing you can do to reduce it.
"Prostitution blights communities and is frankly intolerable. This is not something that communities have to live with.
"We will take a zero tolerance approach to kerb crawling. Men who choose to use prostitutes are indirectly supporting drug dealers and abusers."
Police will also be expected to set up safe houses and other schemes to help women leave the trade. Greater efforts will be made to close brothels masquerading as massage parlours and saunas.
Ministers are expected to rule out an overhaul of the 50-year-old prostitution laws and plans for tolerance zones floated by former Home Secretary David Blunkett 18 months ago.
The Home Office estimates 80,000 people are involved in the vice trade in the UK and 95 per cent of those working on the streets use heroin or crack.
Last night the Home Office confirmed that the prostitution strategy will be published next month.
Niki Adams, spokeswoman for the English Prostitutes' Collective, said the plans would force women into more dangerous conditions.
