A PROSTITUTE has been banned from Blackburn's red light district as part of a crackdown on working girls operating near people's homes.

And police today warned they would not hesitate to use the ground-breaking action again to protect residents from the social problem on their doorsteps.

Magistrates used anti-social behaviour order laws to ban Roxanne Clayton from an area bounded by Montague Street, Oakenhurst Road, Sunnyhurst Road, George Street West, Pump Street, Whalley Banks and King Street, close to the town centre.

Today residents in the Bank Top area said it was about time the authorities took real action to deal with their complaints.

Blackburn magistrates were told that Clayton, 20, of East Park Road, Blackburn, had been cautioned for prostitution and had two convictions for the same offence in the last six months.

Stephen Parker, defending, said the court was being asked to help formulate police and Home Office policy on how prostitution was dealt with.

But magistrates rejected a police request that Clayton should also be banned from "working" between 5pm and 8pm as part of the order.

Joanne Close, prosecuting, said: "You may wish to ask yourselves what it would be like to have prostitutes working near your homes and to consider the type of people that come with them."

Clayton pleaded guilty to loitering for the purpose of prostitution and was fined £50.

The magistrates made an ASBO - normally used to tackle shoplifters and juvenile nuisance - for two years.

Loitering for the purpose of prostitution carries a fine or a conditional discharge. Breach of an anti-social behaviour order can lead to imprisonment for up to five years.

After the case, police said it was the first of its kind in East Lancashire and one of the first in the country.

Town centre Sgt Phil Davies said: "We have had a long-running operation to tackle the issues of prostitution within Blackburn.

"One of the aims of this is to reduce problems in residential areas. The women know what our strategy is. We are not looking to make an example of Roxanne - it is because she had two rapid convictions in a short space of time - but we are hoping the ASBO will be a message to other girls that we will take a firm line on soliciting in residential areas and that we will apply for further orders.

"We are taking a pragmatic approach. We are not going to get rid of the problem overnight. We just want to minimise the social effects."

One resident, who has lived on Oakenhurst Road for 22 years, welcomed the ASBO as "great news."

The 61-year-old woman, said: "We have to put up with prostitutes hanging around from 10am and it has been getting a bit ridiculous. We have had a terrible last few years.

"Hopefully, this is the start of something that will move them out of the area and get rid of the kerb crawlers as well."

Coun Kate Hollern, ward councillor for Wensley Fold, said: "I am absolutely delighted at this news. At last someone is listening to us."

Paul McGurty, for Corporation Park, said "I think this is a good starting point but the problem goes far beyond that. Residents are being verbally abused and are too frightened to come out of their homes and do anything about it.

"I would like to see a higher police presence in the area. It is one thing to do a sporadic one-off check and another to keep it as an ongoing campaign."

From April 1, 2002, to March 31, 2003, arrests for kerb crawling in Blackburn with Darwen increased 500 per cent, from 11 the previous year to 71.