A CRACKDOWN on the vice trade in Bolton has seen more than 100 people arrested on the streets of the town's red light district.

Prostitutes, pimps and kerb-crawlers have been targeted by police as part of the zero tolerance operation.

Police hope their efforts will eventually lead to the sex trade being wiped off from the streets of Bolton for good.

Yesterday 16 kerb crawlers, caught cruising for sex in the last four weeks, were made to attend a special "sexual exploitation session" held by the police and Bolton Council's Community Safety team.

In it they were given letters from residents who live in the areas blighted by hookers and kerb crawlers, which explained the effect the sex trade has on their lives.

They were also told how the sex trade impacts on the lives of those drawn into it through drug addiction and poverty.

Inspector Phil Spurgeon, who led the operation, said: "Most of the people arrested see it as a simple business transaction with an equal balance of power and they do not think it affects anybody else. These letters show that is not true.

"We want to get the message across that Bolton is not a place where you can come to purchase sex. The long term aim is to get rid of prostitution in Bolton."

Since the operation began at the end of November, 2007, 107 arrests have been made.

Of those, 49 were women with previous offences who were charged with soliciting after ignoring formal warnings.

A further 37 men were arrested for kerb-crawling - 35 of whom were cautioned as first time offenders. Two were charged after denying the offence.

Twenty one other people were arrested during the purge for other offences related to drugs and the sex trade.

Both uniformed and plain clothes police officers were used in the operation.

It focused on Shiffnall Street in Bolton town centre, but there were also arrests made in The Haulgh and Lever Street.

Insp Spurgeon said that as a result of this operation most of the problems in the latter two areas had now been eradicated.

He said police want to help get prostitutes off the streets so they can get support from social services and organisations like Urban Outreach which offers help to vice girls trying to break free of the trade.

"We are trying to encourage the girls into drug rehabilitation programmes and through the doors of Urban Outreach," he said.

But he added that police take a zero tolerance approach to any kerb-crawlers caught coming into Bolton to buy sex.

Police previously said the "aggressive" new approach was prompted by a 2,000-name petition handed to Bolton Council, the redevelopment of the Shiffnall Street area and the opening of the Merchant's Place flats and office complex in nearby River Street.

Walter Scott, a resident of The Haulgh, led protests about prostitution in his neighbourhood and has welcomed the recent operation.

Operations by police in Ipswich and Middlesbrough, where the numbers of sex workers have been cut by 50 per cent, have been used as blueprints by police chiefs in Bolton.

Bolton Council has the authority to use anti-social behaviour orders against prostitutes who work during the day or in residential areas at any time.

The Government is considering introducing a specific law which makes it illegal to pay for sex. Women's Minister Harriet Harman announced the move last year.

Whitehall chiefs are studying the law in Sweden, where paying for sex has already been made illegal. Ms Harman said such a move is necessary to stem demand for the trafficking of sex workers into Britain.