ANTI-PROSTITUTION campaigners are to picket the Scottish Parliament dressed as vice girls to step up pressure for a clampdown on streetwalking in Leith.

Half a dozen activists dressed in fishnet stockings and high-heels will lead a 50-strong delegation of residents to Holyrood on November 3 for the protest.

The Leith Links Residents' Association demo is the first of a series of activities over the next few weeks, aimed at highlighting problems caused by prostitutes touting for business in the area.

Other plans include reviving vigilante patrols targeting vice girls and their kerb-crawling customers, a letter-writing campaign to council leaders, MSPs and the police, and a blockade of a caravan operated in the area by prostitute support group Scotpep.

Campaigners believe the council and police have been "too soft" on prostitutes operating in and around the Links, despite repeated complaints from residents.

: "We were promised action two years ago to tackle prostitutes operating in Leith but it has just not happened. Four Asbos in two years is just not good enough."

The Scottish Executive is also under fire for failing to respond to the findings of an expert group it set up to tackle issues surrounding street prostitution.

Last December, a task force led by Strathclyde Police assistant chief constable Sandra Hood recommended a new law be created to prevent people buying or selling sex from causing alarm, offence or embarrassment to the public.

Scotpep, the Leith-based support group for prostitutes, has warned the proposals will leave the door open for vigilante-style attacks on street workers.

An unofficial tolerance zone was located in Coburg Street in Leith for around 15 years until 2001 when it was moved to Salamander Street by police. It was scrapped several months later after massive opposition from local residents.

This is cache, read story here