Many residential areas are plagued by the estimated 100 women who work the city's streets.

The city's mayor is now calling for a zone to be established where prostitutes could work without fear of arrest.

The council has begun a consultation process in an effort to canvass opinion about how the issue of street prostitution should eventually be addressed.

Prostitution 'unacceptable'

Stoke-on-Trent's mayor Mike Wolfe, who promised to address the issue when he was elected, said the problem could not be ignored.

"We need to manage prostitution... and the managed zone is something which a number of local authorities are looking at and we shall be looking at through this overview process.

"That would make it clear to anyone, women or men, who want to use prostitutes that it is not acceptable to indulge in prostitution within the residential streets of our city," he added.