BLACKBURN police have launched a blitz on kerb crawlers and prostitutes reporter David Higgerson spent a night with the men charged with cleaning up the streets, and the women who ply their trade...

THE man inside the car looked sheepish as two plain-clothed officers approached his car. He knew he had been caught out.

Less than 30 minutes into the nightly operation to track down kerb crawlers who have helped turn a residential area into a flourishing red light district, PC Gary Keogh and PC Dave Hall nabbed their first punter.

Seen talking to a well-known prostitute, the man had tried to disappear into a factory car park when the two policemen in their unmarked car had passed him on Dixon Street.

Admitting he had travelled 20 miles from Trawden to trawl Bank Top for sex, the man promised he would never do it again.

His main fear was that his friends and family would find out what he had been up to.

Given a verbal warning and told that a note would be placed on the police's central computer about the incident, the shaken man is sent on his way.

If he is spotted again, his registration plate and name will be called up from the same computer and he will be arrested for kerb crawling.

Back in the unmarked car, PC Hall says: "I am confident we won't see him again. He is your typical kerb crawler.

"He has come so close to being arrested he won't dare do it again."

Over the last year, prostitutes have set up in the Bank Top area of Blackburn after redlight crackdowns in places like Preston have forced them to move to new towns.

Last year's kerb crawling crackdown in Blackburn focused around the King Street area of Blackburn.

Since then, Blackburn's new orbital route has been created and the one-way system around King Street and Byrom Street has led to the prostitutes looking for a better location -- somewhere easier for drivers to pull over, pick up and drive off.

For Lucy, the 30-something prostitute spotted talking to the man from Trawden, prostitution is something she would love to ditch, but she says she can't.

She said: "You could see me tonight but I could be dead tomorrow. It only takes me getting into the wrong car and I could be dead.

"But I have two children and then there is the drugs. I need the money. It is easy money, no other job pays as well as this.

"I was forced into it years ago by an ex-boyfriend and now I feel trapped but I can't escape."

A survey of the town's prostitutes by drugs support groups shown that the average prostitute banks on earning £700 a week, most of which is spent on drugs.

The average hooker expects to see more than 30 men a week and offers services ranging from as little as £15.

And with them arriving in the area as early as 7pm, residents are becoming increasingly rattled.

PC Hall said: "Obviously it upsets the residents but it isn't just the kerb crawlers and prostitutes which cause the problem.

"We will often see the prostitutes using phone boxes.

"Normally that is after they just finished and are calling their dealer for more drugs."

It doesn't take long for word to get out among the prostitutes that the police are on patrol again.

In other areas of the country, police have tried repeatedly locking up the prostitutes, but all they do is return to the streets as soon as they are released.

So while the police will continue to arrest the prostitutes when they catch them with kerb crawlers, the main thrust of their operation is to scare the kerb crawlers off.

But what sort of man goes out looking for a prostitute?

"We get all sorts," said PC Hall. Teachers, lecturers, businessmen -- even people from the emergency services.

"Often, we are surprised because some of the people have so much to lose.

"Some drive them five miles away, others nip down a back alley straight away. We have to make sure they know they will be caught.

"Once the kerb crawlers stop coming, the prostitutes won't hang around."