The problem of street prostitution is a blight on the communities. It is not pleasant for any residents, especially those with families, to see men cruising the area and women touting for business.

Very often, the customers themselves either don't care or don't think about the impact they're having on the people who live in the places where they look for women.

It is a seedy, covert business, and the one major weapon in the battle against street prostitution is the fact that many of those who seek out women for sex would be mortified if their activities were made public.

Sending them to court is one way to ensure their appetite for paying for sex becomes known, which is punishment in itself to those men who are married or maintain a respectable facade in society.

But a new project is giving them the opportunity to avoid this when arrested for kerbcrawling - and seems to be having a positive effect.

The scheme sends the men on an awareness course rather then prosecuting them. While on the face of it this might seem to be a soft option, according to police it appears to be paying dividends, and of the 50 kerbcrawlers who have been sent on the course none have been picked up by police again.

As well as showing them the error of their ways, and making them realise they have avoided a potentially public court case, the course impresses upon the men the impact of their actions on local communities and the women themselves, many of who may be working the streets under duress.

In this case, education seems to be the best course of action to ending this blight.