A COUNTY councillor has called for agencies to be more proactive after residents told him child sex exploitation is going on 'right outside their houses' in Pendle.

Paul White, Conservative councillor for Boulsworth ward and Lancashire County Councillor for Pendle West said residents had reported witnessing children and young adults engaged in seemingly sexual activity with adults right outside their homes.

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He spoke out during a debate about the Jay report, the independent inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.

County councillors agreed to call on all agencies involved in safeguarding and child protection in Lancashire to examine the findings of the report so that the systematic failings of agencies in places such as Rotherham, Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire cannot be repeated in Lancashire.

Speaking in the full council meeting, Mr White said: “Child sexual exploitation is going on in our area, I don’t think there is any doubt about that.

“At Pendle Council, senior figures have met with the police to see how we as a council can make sure we’re doing all we can to protect children, and that work is ongoing. We have an obligation, whether the evidence is anecdotal or not, to make the public aware, and to do everything in our power to catch the perpetrators, but also to make sure we have done everything possible to safeguard and protect children in the future.

“We have to also ensure that all agencies are being proactive in seeking these crimes out, and not waiting for them to be reported.

“I’m confident that this is something we can all work together on. It’s an issue far more important than politics.

“When we’re knocking on doors in Barrowford and residents are telling us that it’s happening right outside their houses, that’s enough to know we have an issue.”

The Jay Report revealed that at least 1,400 children were subjected to sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, some thought to have been as young as 11.