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Prostitution project in Leeds failing all round

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Leeds City Council, debate, Save Our Eyes, prostituted women, primary school children, pimps, drug dealers, Managed Approach to Prostitution, Holbeck and Beeston Hill residents“A ‘dirty man’ asked me for sex at a bus stop. I’m 13.”

According to Leeds City Council’s own figures, over 9000 used, discarded condoms have been collected from the streets and parks of Holbeck and Beeston Hill so far in 2018.

That’s around 1000 a month, and gives an insight into why the residents and businesses there are so outraged that their views and safety have not been taken into account when a Managed Approach for Prostitution was set up there.

Nowadays just going to the park or local play area needs to be carefully supervised due to the discarded needles, condoms and sex industry litter.

Prostituted women can be seen stepping into the road to try and flag down motorists and even having sex in the local phone box.  All of this during the day when children are watching.

And this summer there were three attempted murders of prostituted women, and a local teacher who was apparently mistaken for a prostitute by kerb crawlers was abducted and raped.

Save Our Eyes campaigns for the rights of all Leeds residents whose lives are blighted by the “managed approach to prostitution” which is currently located in the Holbeck area and spreading to other parts of the city.

They want a community where residents are not subjected to daily harassment from kerb crawlers, prostituted women, danger from discarded condoms, needles and sex industry litter.

And they want to see prostituted women freed from the grips of a drug addiction that was created to enslave them; recognising that the women who are prostituted would rather lead different lives and supporting their wishes to exit the sex industry.

Over the last year Save Our Eyes has been working with various groups locally and throughout the UK to draw attention to the realities of the Managed Approach for Prostitution.

They have exposed the impact it has on residents and businesses in the area, and have raised their concerns about the way vulnerable women are being exploited on the streets of Leeds.

The campaign has received assistance from the Conservative group of councillors on Leeds City Council and are now delighted to announce that the Conservative group has now tabled a White Paper to prompt a debate and vote at Leeds Civic Hall.

The motion calls for Leeds City Council to immediately make the Managed Approach work as it was intended or suspend the project completely.

A debate is something campaigners have called for repeatedly because the managed zone was set up in Holbeck without a full debate by city councillors.

The campaigners want to see a Leeds where modern slavery is tackled by helping victims who are trapped to escape, not “worked” more “safely”.

To read about the 7 myths of the Managed Approach, click here.

They also want the streets cleared of the pimps and drug dealers who threaten and intimidate residents, and they want to see their communities freed from the kerb crawlers who persistently follow female residents and even ask children for sex in the streets.

To read about a day in Holbeck click here.

Campaigners believe that the Managed Approach does not benefit the prostituted women it was designed to help, the residents or the businesses.

And at the moment all sides are suffering.

Most Leeds councillors are expected to attend this debate on 14 November 2018, and the campaign groups are very grateful to Councillor Amanda Carter and others who have been able to make it happen.

The campaigners call on all Councillors to oppose the Managed Approach – or be willing to move to Holbeck and live amid the filth, fear and chaos.

They will be holding hold a peaceful vigil at Millennium Square outside Leeds Civic Hall on 14 November 2018 from 4pm until 4.45pm.

And call on all Leeds residents to stand in solidarity with them.

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