RESIDENTS in Broadgreen say kerb crawlers are abandoning their cars in an effort to avoid capture by the police.

They say a police clampdown on kerb crawling has dissuaded them from driving into the Broadgreen area, but now they are coming on foot to buy sex instead.

Men using prostitutes are harder for police to charge when they are on foot.

Coun Sinead Darker (Con, Central) said: "Local residents say that clients are now parking their cars outside the area and walking in so they won't get caught by their car registration numbers.

"They use the back alleys for business and this infuriates the residents."

Residents in the area are concerned that Broadgreen may turn into an unofficial tolerance zone.

They already run Street Watch patrolling the area to deter prostitutes from working.

"There is a lot of local anger about what locals see is the lack of police resource in the Broadgreen area," said Coun Darker.

"They have told me that they see more prostitutes appearing and they believe one of the older prostitutes is dealing drugs to the girls.

"Traditional police kerb crawling crackdowns work only as a temporary measure but the residents say we still need police to make sure Broadgreen doesn't turn into an unofficial tolerance zone."

Pensioner John McCue, who runs Street Watch with his wife Jo, said a lot of men who use prostitutes park elsewhere.

"We have a job getting their registration numbers when they do that," he said.

"By the time we realise they are kerb crawlers, they head back to their cars and get away. We can't be in two places at once."

Karen Leakey, of the Broad Street Area Community Council tried to move prostitutes on during the Bank Holiday weekend.

She posted details of her confrontations with the women on her blog.

She said she spotted a prostitute offering sex to teenage boys.

She asked a woman standing on Bathurst Road to leave and took down registration numbers of cars acting suspiciously.

She also saw two other females on the corner of County Road and Bathurst Road.

"I also came across two males that I have seen in the previous six years walking around and looking' for business," said Mrs Leakey.

In May, police ran an operation offering prostitutes methadone to help get them off heroin to coax them from the streets.

It normally takes up to three months to get a prescription, but volunteer drug workers, social workers and two doctors joined with police to offer the service.

PC Matt Barnett said at the time that the conventional route of fining prostitutes does not tackle the deep-rooted problems of them being addicted to heroin.