Prostitution : Case for Regulated Brothels by Cllr Steve Radford:
Liverpool city council has been exploring ideas of a managed tolerance zone for Prostitution, however the initial debate came from the opposition Liberal Party Group's call for the legalization of Prostitution and calling for regulated brothels . Cllr Steve Radford represents the Tuebrook Ward which includes Newsham Park where prostition has become a major concern and has put the follwoing case in the Daily Post Debate Page
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Almost everyone is agreed that the status quo is not working. When the police carried out crackdowns on prostitution in Toxteth, the outcome was prostitutes then moved onto areas such as Kensington, Newsham Park and Anfield
We would suggest that the current government calls for a crackdown are merely window dressing for public consumption, a real police crackdown would only spread the problem.
Even worse a police heavy approach would cause prostitutes to disperse over a wider area, it would inhibit the delivery of condoms and health education.
We should recognise that prostitutes are not aliens but real people with real problems, criminalising them will not encourage them to find better employment or progress from the situation that led them into prostitution
There is far less street prostitution on the continent where most countries have licensed brothels where health checks are carried out and an essentially a safer environment is provided.
No civilised society should have prostitutes frequently murdered and their bodies found in local parks, as we have seen so tragically in Liverpool. Sex workers on the street are vulnerable to all sorts of violence and abuse
We do not ask people approve of prostitution but merely the law takes a reality check of the fact prostitution is common in almost every town and city. We need to stop the situation whereby householders are confronted with prostitutes working residential streets of our city and even by local schools during day light hours
Local councils should be able to regulate brothels away from residential and shopping areas to minimise offense to the public. At present we have illegal brothels operating and massage parlours acting as disguised brothels. This shadowy existence encourages crime.
A dawn raid in our own ward found illegal immigrants being worked as prostitutes in a perfectly respectable neighbourhood. The status quo lends itself to the worst sort of criminal exploitation
Throughout the world prostitutes have been a gateway group for the spread of sexual diseases and more recently HIV. It is not a case of morality but practical protection of public health that we must encourage protected sex amoungst prostitutes. The issue is to important and too urgent for fudge and delay
We regert that the governments current proposals to allow a brothel of three workers does not provide for health checks, does not regulate where these mini-brothels will be located. It is the worst sort of muddled thinking
Similarly we do not feel the Lib Dem councils support of a managed tolerance zone provides the way forward, it would merely be an open air sex car park which would attract voyeurs . It would be hard in any city to identify a location which would not cause offense to members of the public
We in the Liberal Party Group on Liverpool Council believe that the majority of the public recognise the need for reform, a recent MORI poll for the Sunday Observer suggests public support for legalisation of prostitution has risen from 61% in 2002 to 65% as of today. It is the worst of british humbug and hypocrisy which stands in the way of protecting public health and making the lives of prostitutes safer and most importantly taking prostitution off the streets and behind closed doors where it belongs
