MP Ivor Caplin has stepped up his five-year campaign to clear prostitutes' cards from phone boxes.

The Labour MP for Hove said almost 100,000 prostitutes' cards had to be removed from phone boxes in Brighton and Hove last year. Yesterday he tabled two Parliamentary questions in the House of Commons to raise the issue of "carding".

He has also held talks with BT to discuss the problem and possible action. Mr Caplin said: "Local people, particularly youngsters, should not have to tolerate the nuisance and embarrassment they cause. BT's research shows 85 per cent of phone box users are under 25.

"These young people - some very young indeed - should not have to stand for the nuisance of these cards that are plaguing our phone boxes. Their subject matter is not suitable for public display and is certainly not the sort of thing we want our young children to see.

"Quite apart from the embarrassment and irritation to people using the phone boxes, there is the considerable actual cost and impact on the environment of continually having to have the cards removed.

"I am sure there are solutions to controlling this problem and we need to work towards implementing them speedily to ensure our phone boxes are suitable for everyone to use."

Mr Caplin's questions to the Home Secretary Jack Straw concern the financial impact controlling the distribution of cards have on the police, local authority and phone companies.

He is also asking which organisations responded to the Government's consultations on controlling carding. Mr Caplin should have a response from Mr Straw within ten days. Nationally, the figure for the number of calling cards found in phone boxes is around 14 million each year.

Police used to be only able to prosecute those responsible under civil litter laws which carried small fines.

But since November 1998, when Brighton and Hove Council decided to take out injunctions against those convicted more than twice, police can hand out jail sentences to prostitutes who repeatedly persist in displaying their cards in telephone boxes.

BT bars calls to BT numbers on sex cards but many prostitutes have switched to other operators. Councillor Pat Hawkes thinks there is a case for cards, although she would like them to be toned down.

She said: "If we don't allow cards in telephone boxes then we will have the prostitutes out on the street just like in places like Southampton and Bradford.

"We don't object to the cards as long as they are just in print. What I do disagree with is the cards full of graphic, demeaning pictures which no child should have to find in a phone box."

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