A CRACKDOWN on prostitution in Bolton has been put on hold after council chiefs demanded the public be more widely consulted.

Cllr Ismail Ibrahim, the executive member for culture and community services, deferred a decision on plans to tackle vice in the borough so that further opinions from communities affected could be gathered.

He was due to consider a report on the problem yesterday, but he felt not enough account had been taken of the views of residents.

As well as further public consultation, Cllr Ibrahim wants more information about schemes in other areas, such as the zero tolerance approach in Middlesbrough, which has seen the number of on-street sex workers drop from 200 to just 15.

He said: "I felt the consultation process was not enough. I felt the residents' associations and groups and the wider public had been left out.

"There was also an agreement that we would look at best practices up and down the country and there's nothing about that in the report. When I'm satisfied these efforts have been exhausted then I will take things from there."

Residents in Great Lever and The Haulgh, which have the worst on-street prostitution in Bolton, are delighted with the news.

Walter Scott, a resident of The Haulgh, said: "I'm very pleased with this outcome because the level of public opinion has been seriously underestimated. There has to be a balance, where the problems of the prostitutes are looked at equally with the problems of the communities.

"There needs to be complete zero tolerance of street prostitution in residential areas."

The original plans included covert police operations to catch both prostitutes and kerb-crawlers, CCTV and the arrest of drug dealers. Work is also being done with the prostitutes to offer them a way out and with young people who are at risk of falling in to the on-street sex industry.

Bolton is one of only a few areas nationally to have a policy for dealing with prostitution. Police created a designated management zone in Shifnall Street and Breightmet Street.

In addition, Bolton Council has the authority to use anti-social behaviour orders against prostitutes who work during the day or in residential areas at any time.

But critics of the current policy believe this has only moved the problem from The Haulgh to Great Lever.