It is not surprising that police are concerned at the results of their four-hour blitz against kerb-crawlers in Listerhills Road, Sunbridge Road and Thornton Road. Four behavioural contracts issued, 15 other drivers stopped and warned and a further ten registration numbers taken for the owners to be contacted by letter might seem to have been a "good result" for the vice squad. However, it is a bad result for that part of Bradford in that it suggests there is a massive problem.

Prostitution is a blight. It can badly affect businesses located in an area frequented by prostitutes and their clients. It can leads to respectable women being propositioned as they walk to work.

It is right that the police are targeting the clients in this way. Even without the use of behavioural contracts backed by threat of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and the loss of a driving licence, the police have a powerful weapon in the shape of letters sent to the homes of suspected kerb-crawlers.

It makes greater sense to try to curb demand in the hope of reducing the supply of sex for sale rather than to target the prostitutes themselves. Many of the girls and women who become involved in this sordid trade are victims: of drugs, of poverty, of unscrupulous and violent pimps. They need help rather than punishment.

The volunteers from the Abundant Life Church who spend their Wednesday and Friday nights touring the affected areas in a bus offering hot drinks, food and friendship to the prostitutes are doing very commendable work in providing a lifeline to help them to escape their dangerous lifestyle.