Little boy tells police chief: "I see prostitutes every day"

Police and councillors in Leeds have admitted the UK's first legalised red light zone hasn't worked, and promised to make changes.

In a packed public meeting in Holbeck last night, dozens of people - including parents, a head teacher and a charity worker - put pressure on the authorities to improve the managed area or scrap it altogether.

Residents have joined together in a Facebook group called 'Save Our Eyes', and created a slideshow of photos showing sex workers who they say are outside of the zone, and needles and condoms littering the grass.

They were represented by Matthew Sullivan, who set up the group. He said they feel little is being done about the problems people are reporting, and things have steadily become worse since the project was introduced as a pilot in October 2014. He also raised issues like kerb crawlers, house prices being driven down, women not being able to walk to work, and teenage boys being propositioned on their way to school.

Head teacher of St. Luke’s Primary School, Louise Booth, also raised concerns about condoms and needles being left on the playground on a daily basis. She said it has become a big part of the caretaker’s daily job, and that they reported it three times to the police but nobody had attended.

One parent stood up and said her daughter’s bedroom looked out onto a street where a woman had been performing oral sex every day for the last week.

Martin Dean, Leeds City Council Area Leader, admitted people were consulted 'quietly' when the project was first introduced as a pilot in October 2014. The idea was for women to ply their trade without fear of arrest, as long as they were inside the managed area and operating within certain hours and rules. He said surveys were sent to every address in the surrounding area, but people at the meeting disagreed, with many shouting that they were never told about it.

He said following feedback in last year's consultation, the timings in which the zone operates were changed to 8pm-6am, but no changes were made to the geographical boundaries of the zone. They've also set up a mobile number to increase reporting of problems, and are adding CCTV.

West Yorkshire Police were represented at the meeting by Leeds District Commander Paul Money, who said: “Clearly we haven’t got it right.”

But he pointed out policing resources have been cut, and it’s a challenge deciding how best to proceed. He added between 20 and 30 women who had been coming to Holbeck from Eastern Europe are now being dealt with after they begun working with the borders agency.

But he admitted: “I know from what you’ve said that it’s not enough.

“What we had before wasn’t working, and neither is what we have now.”

Some residents warned police if they don’t do more to protect women and children living in Holbeck, it could reach a ‘vigilante’ stage where local people take things into their own hands.

A little boy went to the front of the meeting and told Chief Supt Money: “Every day I see prostitutes. There are condoms and needles everywhere on the skate park.”

Chief Supt Money told him: “You shouldn’t have to see that. We’re sorry about that.”

The meeting ended with Leeds City Cllr Debora Coupar, who is Executive Member for Communities, promising to go away and look at all the issues raised, before coming back for another discussion on how best to proceed.

“Leeds matters to me,” she said.

“We’re here to listen to what you’ve got to say about what’s happening. Quite clearly the approach hasn’t worked. So we need to take into consideration all that you’ve said. It’s absolutely despicable that you’ve had to face these issues. We need to change that and I am taking that on board.”

She also said members of the council would be happy to go and walk around the area with residents to see the issues for themselves.

Speaking after the meeting, Matthew Sullivan and his wife Amanda told Radio Aire how they felt it had gone.

“We were expecting a similar situation to last time where everybody would walk out because there was so much shouting,” said Amanda.

“I do believe this time they are listening. We have too many voices for them to ignore us now.”

But Matthew said he wasn’t reassured: “It’s as I expected, we’ve had no answers. All I know is that now we have a community who will stand together. We have a group that can help push things forward, and we will in the future bring the council and the police to task about these matters.”

In a statement issued before the meeting, Safer Leeds - which manages the project - said it is committed to listening to people's views, and adapting the strategy as needed.

• in the zone