Prostitution de-criminalised?

Chris Helm gets under the covers to discover what's happening on the streets of Everton.

'Regeneration through prostitution' is Pauline Daniels' phrase for what's been happening in Everton over the past few years. Pauline has lived in Everton all her life, and became so alarmed at the rising amount of prostitution in the area that she set up Residents Against Prostitution, to fight back against what she believes is a deliberate strategy to force the problem from one area earmarked for gentrification into her community.

It seems that the council has earmarked Canning, with its Georgian houses and red-brick cathedral, for gentrification. Co-incidentally (or not), what was previously seen as the city's red-light district has seen a dramatic drop in the numbers of prostitutes working its streets over the last few years. As you might expect, one area's gain is another area's loss, and the 500 or so women who work the streets in Liverpool have now been dispersed over a much wider area. Once again, it is areas such as Everton and Kensington that have suffered.

Pauline Daniels talked about the effects that an increase in the sex trade had had in Everton. Three sex workers have been murdered. There have also been three attempted abductions in the area. Pauline said that the sex workers had been "dumping syringes and used condoms in people's gardens".

Local Concillor Jane Corbett told me, "…I live …just off Netherfield Road and I've got two young daughters…. If you stand at the corner of a street you're likely to be propositioned. Well, that's just not on. And young kids are seeing sex acts, so they're learning about sex, but they're learning about abusive sex rather than in a loving relationship'. She also mentioned that because of the poor public transport in the area local children who attend Archbishop Blanch and Notre Dame schools (including her daughters) often have to walk to school and back. Their entire journey is through a red-light area.

Pauline Daniels believes that the police have a lot to answer for. She told me she has written evidence that the police deliberately moved prostitutes into the residential areas of Everton in the form of a leaflet from the LINX project, a now defunct group who offered support to prostitutes and communities affected by prostitution. Pauline believes that the police and the council should be served with Anti Social Behaviour Orders for their part in bringing crime into her neighbourhood. She also feels that the council and the police have tolerated the problem and done very little to stop it.

Jane Corbett does not believe that there was a strategy to move prostitution into one particular area. She told me that for safety reasons sex-workers want to work in well-lit areas and these often happen to be residential areas. Safety is a much more pressing concern for a sex worker than fear of getting caught.

Both Pauline Daniels and Jane Corbett are in favour of 'managed zones' where prostitutes can work away from residential areas. According to a recent survey by researchers at John Moores University, sex workers would feel safer working in a managed zone. 98% of street workers are drug dependant. A managed zone would make it easier for support services to find those women who want to come off drugs.

Jane Corbett said that the council had been looking into better ways of dealing with prostitution since 1989 when the 'Abercromby Working Party' was set up. A number of years after this, the Council produced a report called 'Ahead of the Game'. This report was kept secret. The Lib Dem councilor Richard Kemp was pushing this report forward but was forced to carry the can for the mess the council made of the Boot Estate in Norris Green.

It's only recently that the idea of managed zones has taken off again. Pauline Daniels believes that it is the efforts of groups like Residents Against Prostitution that have forced the issue of managed zones back on the political agenda. Jane Corbett wants the idea to at least be tried out to see whether it's workable. She feels that managed zones should operate only in non-residential areas and only at night. This would mean that children would not be around.

Pauline Daniels asserted that 'Residents Against Prostitution has 100% support from the local community. They are giving the police and the council another six months to get prostitution out of the residential part of Everton. They will only step up their campaign if they feel that their community is getting no help from the police. In the meantime the group is appealing for legal advice and would appreciate sympathetic solicitors to get in touch, as well as any other members of the public who support their campaign.

For Jane Corbett, this issue is a matter of life and death. "What's happening on the streets of Everton can't be allowed to carry on. We can't go on having young women murdered…. They should be in the prime of their lives, but they're in extreme danger.

Although extremely vocal about Prostitution, it isn't Pauline's only concern, when I met her she argued that Everton was not seeing any benefit from regeneration nor Capital of Culture. "Capital of Culture is a joke", she said, "Because it's all spent on the city centre. We're only a mile away from the city centre. You've only got to walk into the community to see the way people are actually living. No money's getting spent on us."

Jane Corbett told me that £1.3 million of 'Neighbourhood Renewal Fund' money that should be spent on areas like Everton is instead being spent on a 'Capital of Culture One Stop Shop' in the City Centre, which will create a massive TWO JOBS! "That money' she believed 'actually could have been used to address prostitution, street lighting, cleaning areas up ... all sorts of really good stuff could have happened in our communities, but instead we are getting left behind."

Residents Against Prostitution can be contacted by ringing Pauline Daniels on 476 7665 or 077 6513 6299