POLICE have been urged to clamp down on prostitutes engaging in sex acts in the car park of Blackburn's new Lidl supermarket.

Police said the call girls had taken to using the area after another car park nearby had had a barrier put across it.

Town centre officers are continuing their patrols around the Bank Top area to catch people in the act.

But the town's Chamber of Trade urged the police to do all they could to stop the practice as it was potentially damaging to businesses.

Lidl, in King Street, is in the middle of Blackburn's red light district and was opened last autumn.

PS Phil Davies said he did not believe prostitutes were engaging in full sex in the car park, but sex acts.

He added: "We are aware of some activity, but by in large they take them elsewhere. It is in the middle of the red light area and they go there because it is there and it has a car park."

Raymond Goldstone, president of the town's Chamber of Trade, said: "It is undesirable for the community in general.

"I would have thought they have a negative impact on businesses. It is something that is undesirable for the traders and could do with being discouraged and stopped."

Meanwhile, the town's drug action team has been sending an information van into the Bank Top area to give support directly to the prostitutes.

PS Davies said most of the women were drug addicts and added: "We target the ones who are keen to quit. We have already got two out, so it seems to be working, but it is a slow process."

Last summer more than 2,000 leaflets were sent to reassure residents in Bank Top after the area was flooded with 30 call girls, who had resettled in Blackburn after a vice clampdown in Preston.

Patrols were stepped up as plain-clothed officers set out to caution men caught kerb-crawling.

Lidl refused to comment.