New law will see return to red light areas

The Government this week announced new powers to crack down on explicit prostitute cards and the advertising of sexual services in public telephone boxes.

So for those who flit between telephone boxes in central Brighton and Hove putting up cards advertising the services of prostitutes, massage parlours and escort agencies, there awaits a fine of up to £1,000 within the next two years be liable to fines of up to £1,000.

After much debate and campaigning - a lot of it by Hove MP Ivor Caplin - the Government has come up with what it believes is a way of ridding places like Brighton and Hove, with a large number of vice establishments, of the explicit cards.

The proposed crackdown has angered vice girls in the town, like Linda Mason. She openly admits she is a call girl and model working from her Hove flat. She is responsible for getting friends to put up seventy to eighty cards a day in local telephone boxes.

Linda says she will have to find another way of attracting clients to her basement flat if the new legislation becomes law. The tall, slim, attractive blonde has never solicited on the streets for clients, but she says the new laws will lead to soliciting at Brighton and Hove stations and certain roads in the town centres, as well as the creation of red light areas with flats controlled by pimps wanting to cash in.

"I have tried all types of advertising and in the Brighton area cards are the best. I even have an internet site and have tried newspapers and magazines. Out of every 10 clients, seven or eight come from telephone boxes," explained Linda.

""I have chosen to make my living this way. I don't do it for the sex, I do it for the money. I am not repulsed by what I do and I can honestly say I have helped save marriages."

Up until now, prosecutions against people caught putting up the cards in the boxes could only be taken under legislation such as the Town and Country Planning Regulations, which carry only limited fines. Brighton and Hove Council has secured a limited number of prosecutions.

The new legislation will be introduced after the next general election, giving those who continue to flout local planning laws by putting up cards at least two years grace.

Prostitute card legislation is expected to be introduced by whoever wins the next election in a bid to cut down on the staggering 13 million cards advertising male and female sexual services in 1,000 BT telephone boxes across London alone each year.

Brighton and Hove is second in the nationwide league of prostitute card removals with 1 million cards a year removed from 240 town centre boxes.

Other cities and towns which have had, or continue to have, prostitute card problems are Norwich and Bath.

Residents, tourists and local businesses say the cards, often featuring explicit pictures of nude men and women, damage the image of towns and cities.

Hove MP Ivor Caplin has been at the forefront of the campaign to find a way of ridding the town of the cards, which are becoming more and more explicit.

He says they are an embarrassment to the town and family life. And it does not do Brighton and Hove's reputation as a thriving commercial and tourist centre any good.

The MP is particularly concerned of the effect on children.

There have been cases of children collecting them and swapping them in the school playgrounds and seeing who can collect the most sexually explicit cards.

He is pleased at the Government's clear intention to go ahead with the legislation."This unnecessary intrusion in phone boxes is closer to coming to an end than it has been for many years."

Home Office Minister in the Lords, Lord Bassam, the former leader of Brighton and Hove Council, has said the new laws will be extended to cover public structures, including bus shelters and buildings.

With newsagents under pressure to stop displaying cards in their shop windows, Mr Caplin says the best way forward is for girls who want this way of life to advertise in top shelf directories, which should only be sold to people over 18.

Call girls, such as Linda, says this could lead to a monopoly of the vice market in Brighton and Hove, with some girls who do not have the money being frozen out and then forced on to the streets.

Brighton and Hove's sex trade is different from other parts of the country in that most girls work from private homes and flats and there is no soliciting on the streets. Mr Caplin is convinced top shelf directories are the answer: "Directories can be kept out of the reach of children, sold to people who feel they need their services.

"It has worked well in Norwich and prompted a clean up of all telephone boxes after a spate of cards appeared."

But Ms Mason, who offers a range of sexual services, including photographic modelling from her basement flat from £30, said the new law would increase the risks faced by working girls.

She said: "Sex magazines are no good because these tend to be bought by a small number of people. We don't get the kind of response we want from newspapers.

"Without advertising in telephone boxes, nobody will risk it with these fines, girls will be forced to work in certain areas where clients will know where there are girls available. It will lead to red light areas and soliciting.

"There is no Mr Big controlling girls in Brighton but someone will move in soon. We are mostly independent girls working from our own flats or flats owned by sympathetic landlords. These new laws will put an end to that and girls will work openly on the streets again or in red light areas, once the cards go from the telephone boxes"