TACKLING prostitution will be top of the agenda at a council meeting this evening.

The Prostitution Task Group will give an update of its progress and outline key recommendations.

These include issuing sex workers with leaflets helping them to identify dangerous punters, and handing out safety packs, including condoms and a UV liquid spray.

The recommendations also include introducing fines for kerb crawlers that would flow directly into a re-education scheme, and identifying vulnerable young people.

Protecting properties in hotspot areas from burglaries and damage related to prostitution is another key area highlighted by the group.

Coun Sinead Darker (Con. Central) is a member of the Sex Workers Multi Strategy meeting, which drew up the recommendations.

She said: "The aim of the task group is to lessen the impact that prostitution has on the community.

"It's an extremely complex issue, but is one that has a huge impact on communities.

"There are prostitutes out there who need an average of £300 a day to fund their drug habits.

"We need to provide these people with help and alternatives."

Coun Darker said that the effect on residents was at the forefront of the group's recommendations.

"Residents have complained of finding used condoms and syringes lying on the floor, and one lady told me of how prostitutes would have sex up against her fence."

Coun Darker said she would welcome a clampdown on kerb crawlers.

She said: "I would be in favour of an education programme for people who are caught kerb crawling."

She is also keen on a leaflet to be handed out to sex workers explaining some dos and don'ts.

She said: "It will include information like taking down the registration number before getting into a car and making sure someone knows where you are going.

"We need to tackle the problem of prostitutes suffering abuse. We also need to invest in education in schools.

"Young girls, and not just girls, can get into problems with drugs and turn to prostitution. We need to show them another way out."

Pensioner John McCue has been a long-term campaigner against prostitution in Broadgreen.

He thinks the task group is a welcome sign but should have been done sooner. He said: "I'm not sure that leaflets will work because they just do what they want anyway.

"From our point of view, we just want them out of here, and I'm in favour of anything that does that."