CONVICTED kerb crawlers could find themselves named and shamed on street signs in a red-light district.

It is part of a new get-tough policy to cut down on prostitution in the Medway area.

Labour councillor Bill Esterson told the latest meeting of Medway council’s finance scrutiny committee that details of men brought before the courts for kerb crawling in Rochester and Chatham could soon appear on the signs.

The Medway Crime Reduction Partnership agreed back in December to the signs being put up and this promise was repeated last month although it is not yet known when the signs would go up.

The partnership has offered to pay for the signs following residents’ complaints. These signs would be updated when men were convicted of seeking the services of girls working the streets.

One resident, who did not want to be named, said: “We are supposed to be a city of culture. Anyone travelling around the New Road area and City Way these days would think we were a city of copulation. I regularly have girls performing on my doorstep.”

There are thought to be around 300 prostitutes working in the Medway Towns. In the recent past the police have taken prostitutes to court to seek ASBOs.

Earlier this year the Government announced plans to deal with prostitution, including allowing the women to work together in “mini-brothels” and taking away the driving licences of convicted kerb crawlers.

Cllr Esterson said he had seen how a similar scheme had worked in the north-east of England. “I think it would work in Medway,” he said. “I’m determined to do whatever it takes to make people’s lives easier.

He said the police were doing their best but new methods needed to be tried.

And he added that the prostitutes were only there because the kerb crawlers want them: “So if we make it difficult for their customers to proposition them, they will go away.”