THE people of East Oxford deserve to be protected from street prostitute Nicola Harris, but this cannot be the end of the authorities’ work with her.

Harris is described as the most prolific of the prostitutes working in the area and this cannot be ignored.

Yet the Anti Social Behaviour Order she has been hit with must not be the end of intervention in her life — and others walking the streets.

Harris is a Class A drug addict. Despite her protestations that she would remain a prostitute even if she was clean, it is drugs that is driving this woman to sell her body and therefore it is only when that addiction is addressed that her ‘profession’ may change.

It is because of this that authorities must continue to work with Harris and the other street prostitutes to cure her of that addiction because this must be a double-headed strategy.

Offering help and assistance — and sticking with it despite the initial rejections — must be a priority because an Asbo, even with the threat of imprisonment for breaching it, when soliciting does not carry such a penalty, is not a deterrent that will overpower the cravings for the next fix.

The approach must be the velvet hand inside the iron glove.

Otherwise Asbos for prostitutes will not achieve any success at all.