Red light area ‘sends the wrong message’

THE MANAGEMENT of Leeds’s red light district encourages the notion that violence against women is “acceptable”, a local councillor has claimed.

Coun Amanda Carter, a Conservative member of Leeds Council, said the zone in Holbeck, where prostitution is permitted at certain times of the day, sent out the “wrong message” to society.

Coun Carter made the comments during a debate about sexual and violent crimes against women at a police and crime panel meeting.

The issue has been widely discussed last week following the death of Sarah Everard, who grew up in York, in London.

The zone, the first of its kind in the country, allows sex workers to operate without fear of prosecution, but the approach has divided opinion.

West Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson said there were “no easy answers” over the issue.

Coun Carter said that the police and Leeds Council were “turning a blind eye” to the plight of the women in the area.

She said: “The women are mostly addicted to drugs and alcohol and that is why they have to be prostitutes, to feed their habit.

“Often something traumatic has happened in their lives. Some of them have been sexually abused or something dreadful has happened to them.”

Coun Carter also claimed that children had been approached in the area and schools were worried about abductions.

However, Chief Constable John Robins told the meeting that the only report of an attempted abduction in the district was several years ago before the managed zone started.

Mr Burns-Williamson said: “I absolutely abhor the fact of prostitution and those who seek to control women in that way. But as you know, there are no easy answers on this.”