IT is not the first time Walter Scott and The Haulgh residents have demanded zero tolerance policing towards the prostitutes operating on their streets (Bolton News, March 17).

Two things need to be said.

The first is that there would not be a single prostitute on the streets of Bolton, but for the willingness of sections of the male population to buy sexual services on a "pay per item" basis.

The second is that zero tolerance enforcement is expensive in its use of resources. Police resources are finite in availability, and prostitution, though irritating and a nuisance, is not the only, nor necessarily the most urgent, policing priority.

I cannot really see the justification for short-changing the rest of Bolton of policing, so that the police can spend all their discretionary policing hours chasing round The Haulgh.

Peter Johnston, Kendal Road, Bolton