Ken rejects red-light plan

Ken Livingstone has ruled out creating designated "red light" zones for London's prostitutes.

The Mayor said such areas would be a magnet for criminals and would fail to address the problems associated with prostitution. Instead he argued prostitution should be decriminalised to allow women to work from home.

Speaking on BBC's Question Time, he said he was "absolutely opposed" to designated red light zones.

"However you do it, the people who live in that area would be placed under an intolerable imposition. It would attract some of the worst elements of society.

"The way to do it is to decriminalise and allow women to work from their own homes," he said.

Liverpool is set to became the first city in Britain to introduce prostitution tolerance zones. Up to five areas in could be designated as vicefriendlyzones where sex for sale would be allowed during the night. The sites will have CCTV cameras and a centre for health advice and women's welfare. But Mr Livingstone said the scheme would have a devastating impact on communities.

"If you create these zones everyone else would move out," he said. A report last year found more than 8,000 women are working as prostitutes in flats, massage parloursand saunas - or as escorts - in London. Despite the scale of the problem, the Met is also opposed to setting up tolerance zones.

Superintendent Chris Bradford, head of the force's clubs and vice unit, said that legalising prostitution would not prevent exploitation, while red-light zones could make the vice trade and associated criminal activities, such as drugs and people trafficking, more difficult to police.

Liverpool City Council wants to copy a scheme in the Dutch city of Utrecht which has a zone for prostitutes in an industrial area of the inner city, away from homes and businesses.

A council official told the BBC: "We want to provide a safe area for prostitutes to work in, but at the same time we want to offer them all the support and help necessary to get out of the sex trade."

A Home Office spokesman said: "We are looking into the pros and cons of managed zones, but it would require primary legislation to make them legal."