Persistent kerb crawlers and pimps will be banned from Bradford's red light areas in a new crackdown on the vice trade.

Police and Bradford Council are using Anti-Social Behaviour Orders for the first time against people caught seeking or selling sex.

Patrols have also been stepped up after businesses in the area complained their trade is being blighted by prostitution.

Extra street wardens and Police Community Support Officers have been drafted in to target prostitutes, pimps and punters who plague the Goitside area just outside the city centre.

One "prolific" kerb crawler has already been banned from the area after an ASBO was successfully granted against him.

Pub licensee William Wagstaff, who has run the New Beehive on Westgate for 15 years, has written to the Council expressing his concern about the effect the vice trade and associated criminal activity was having on the area.

He said: "There was an exclusion zone introduced for vice offenders two years ago, but nothing seems to have changed. The girls are still in the area and they come from other towns and cities because they don't get moved on.

"It has impacted on local businesses within the area and upon our personal and family lives."

And Asmi Darr, who runs a retail outlet, said customers, especially women, had been put off visiting businesses by prostitutes hanging around.

He said: "The police had a crack down and it worked at the time. We need another one but it needs to be more concerted and long-lasting."

Mr Darr, who has traded in Bradford for 40 years, said he would even consider leaving the city because of the problem.

"If the right opportunity came along I would like to move out. Our business is a credit to the area but we have not grown and we have to work much harder to pull customers in."

Chartered surveyor Andrew Idle, who has an office in Sunbridge Road, said the vice trade had an environmental impact on the area with used condoms and syringes left scattered about.

Kirsten England, Bradford Council's director of policy, said daily patrols by street wardens and PCSOs were being stepped up. She said the Council had also contacted the police to develop the use of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders against pimps and kerb crawlers.

Longer term there were plans to regenerate the area with residential, retail and leisure developments.

Superintendent Geoff Dodd, head of operations for Bradford South Police, said he believed there had been a noticeable reduction in the number of prostitutes working the streets.

But he added: "Our strategy for dealing with vice is to tackle the kerb crawlers and pimps, rather than the prostitutes.

"We do occasionally have crack downs when you can almost stop the trade for a few hours. But it doesn't take away the drug addictions many of these girls have and the abuse they have suffered at the hands of pimps."

He said police were working with other parties, like the Streets and Lanes project, the Council, health agencies and the Street Prostitution Forum, to tackle the root causes of the problem.

l Anyone who has information about kerb crawlers should ring the Bradford South Police help desk on (01274) 376459.