An innovative pilot scheme aimed at preventing kerb-crawlers from re-offending could be set up in Bradford.

The project, which has been developed by Leeds Metropolitan University, is based on a similar programme in America which resulted in only three per cent of men re-offending.

Bradford Council is considering supporting the Leeds project with a grant of £1,500.

Men caught kerb-crawling are given two options - to be charged with the offence or pay £110 to take part in the scheme in which they are given talks by former vice girls about life on the streets.

It is hoped that if a similar scheme is set up in the district it would also address a wider range of problems such as under-age prostitution.

Councillor John Ruding, chairman of Bradford Council's community safety sub-committee, said: "The scheme is something we are looking to take up in Bradford. But first we want to see how successful it is. Our target is to help girls who are locked in prostitution."

Coun Ruding said the problems in Bradford may be clearer when a Council-commissioned research project is completed at the end of the year.

He said: "We should then get a clearer picture of what is taking place in the Bradford district."

An area which has already been highlighted as a problem by a the district-wide Multi Agency Forum on Prostitution is the Soho Mills complex in Thornton Road, Bradford. A report to the community safety sub-committee meeting in Keighley Town Hall tomorrow says the security of the complex is an issue due to problems in relation to prostitution.

One of its tenants, Kenneth Valentine, was jailed in March this year for the murder of prostitute Caroline Creevy.

Miss Creevy was strangled to death by Valentine, wrapped in a rug and dumped in some nearby drains in October 1996.

Sharmila Gandhi, community safety policy officer for Bradford Council, said: "We would like to see what the pilot achieves. The problem has to be looked at in a much wider context.

"One of our priorities, for example, is tackling men who are looking for under-age sex."

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