A CRACKDOWN on prostitution has been hailed a success by anti-vice campaigners.

Officials have seen a drop in the number of prostitutes working in Middlesbrough.

They have also seen an increase in the number of girls seeking help to get out of the vice trade.

Earlier this year, Middlesbrough became the first town in the UK to serve an anti-social behaviour order on a persistent prostitute.

The town has a dedicated task force of support groups and agencies offering young prostitutes swift medical treatment, rehousing and new lifestyle opportunities.

This approach, which has seen hundreds of kerb crawlers prosecuted, is being declared a winner although campaigners say there is a long way to go.

Wendy Shepherd heads the Barnardo's SECOS (Sexually Exploited Children on the Streets) project, offering help to young people forced into a life of prostitution.

She said: "We have done really well. We have about a 22 per cent decrease in young people coming out on to the street and we are getting young people and woman out of that lifestyle all the time.

"We are seeing less young people on the streets because we have protocols in place, because people, groups and agencies are working hard together.''

About 35 new vice girls start on Middlesbrough's streets every year. That figure dropped to 28 in 2003.

Mrs Shepherd said: "People are working very hard to improve the image, to make it a place where people want to live and shop."

Thirty three young women have, with the help of the support agencies, left prostitution over the past three years.

Superintendent Steve Ashman, of Cleveland Police, said: "I think it's fair to say that for sometime now the prostitution task group under the Safe-in-Middlesbrough Partnership has been recognised as taking a lead, nationally, in the innovative ways in which we have combated the scourge of kerb crawling in this town. And the results are beginning to pay off.''

Councillor Barry Coppinger, Middlesbrough Council executive member for law and order, said: "This is due in no small part to the sterling work of Barnados, SECOS, the police and social services and the collaboration of our schools.

"But this is only a start. There is still much scope for early prevention and there is a raft of initiatives and support services in place to protect young women at risk of sexual exploitation.

"It's important we understand, recognise and act upon the often complicated and distressing circumstances that make these girls so vulnerable."