COUNCILLORS have proposed setting up a “safe area” for prostitutes.
A leading member of Blackburn with Darwen council said he supported the idea of setting aside a non-residential area for sex workers to operate from without being moved on by police.
And council leader Michael Lee said nothing was being ruled out in the search for a solution to the problems blighting some of the borough’s neighbourhoods.
But they have been warned by their legal team against setting up “what would effectively be a brothel”.
Last week people living in a residential part of Bank Top, Blackburn, approached the town hall calling for action as it was revealed streets including Pleasington Close had been turned into East Lancashire’s biggest red light district with girls coming from as far as Manchester to jobs" target="_blank">work.
At a fiery meeting of the council’s ruling executive board they told councillors the problem was making their lives a misery and called for a “designated area to be set up”.
Councillors debated the suggestion, and chief exec-utive Graham Burgess intervened after seeking advice from the council’s top legal officer.
Mr Burgess said: “We can't be seen to set up what would effectively be a brothel. I don't think the law would be on our side.”
But speaking after the meeting, Lib Dem Salim Lorgat, exec-utive member for housing, said: “If police move them from one place to another, you will never eradicate the problem.
“It would be better to keep them in one area, which has not got a residential element, and we have asked the officers to look at it.
"Lots of countries we do not see as ‘liberal’ have a containment policy.”
Town hall officers and the police have been asked to consider their suggestion as part of a forthcoming review of prostitution in the borough.
Tory council leader Mr Lee added: “We are looking at all the options to see what is possible to try and resolve the issue.
“We are not ruling anything in or anything out. It’s difficult because there are limits to what we can do. It depends on the police playing ball.
"If they say it is not legal, we will have to look at something else.”
In 2006, Labour councillor Andy Kay, then in charge of regeneration and Blackburn with Darwen’s Community Safety Partnership, called for legalised brothels to provide a safer environment.
Yesterday he reiterated his views, insisting that merely setting aside a “designated area” would not help the problem as it would still cause problems for residents or businesses.
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