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Community agrees way forward on sex worker issue
Thursday 21 November 2013
Community agrees way forward on sex worker issue
Christchurch City Councillors who called today’s meeting about sex workers operating in residential Manchester Street say there are “positive and promising” outcomes for all parties.
Shirley/Papanui Councillors Ali Jones and Pauline Cotter called for today’s meeting between concerned residents, businesses and community organisations. Representatives from the Police, the Council, sex workers, Shirley/Papanui Community Board members and the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective attended the meeting held at Abberley Park Hall in St Albans.
Councillors Cotter and Jones agreed to take back a list of actions for further discussion with Council staff and then other councillors.
These actions included:
• developing a voluntary accord regulated by the sex
workers themselves
• investigating the provision of
public toilets and rubbish bins in areas where the sex
workers operate
Councillor Jones says tension between
homeowners and sex workers had been rising since they moved
to the residential part of Manchester Street when the inner
city was cordoned off after the earthquakes.
She hopes that the outcomes from today’s meeting will give everyone, including residents and sex workers, reassurance that their voices are being heard.
“I feel very positive about the outcomes of today and I’m looking forward to seeing the ideas and possible resolutions discussed being further developed so that we can have this issue sorted as soon as possible,” says Councillor Jones.
The proposed accord will be drafted by Police, sex workers, the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective, Council staff, and the Youth and Cultural Development (YCD) outreach service. Local residents who attended the meeting supported the drafting of the accord and agreed for the above parties to develop it.
This afternoon’s private meeting, which gave all parties a chance to speak, was organised after an altercation on October 13 between a north Manchester Street homeowner and a sex worker, and ongoing issues in the area relating to sex workers on the street.
ENDS
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