Behind the house of an Islington family my wife knows is a lane that is used by the prostitutes who work Islington's streets as a toilet. They defecate in the lane - hey, this is a blog - they crap in the lane, and jammed in a gap in a fence is a rag they use to wipe their bum. That's out the back of the house. Out the front the pros are presenting as they do and the kerb crawlers or potential clients on foot are loitering with intent. Nearby are the pimps, ferals on BMX bikes often, and somewhere in the mix are drug dealers ready to make a sale as each prostitute returns from a business encounter.

The adults and children who live in these streets have to make their way through this every day and at any hour of the day and night. As I ride my bike through Islington on some Saturday mornings between 6am and 7.30am they're there, prostitutes and pimps; they're there during the day; and they're always there when I've been driving at night.

You wouldn't want these people in your street for any reason. They are the ugly end of humanity, and no talk of compassion, of their vulnerability, of their needs, will change the fact that you wouldn't want them in your street. And as I point out in my column today, NSW law says very clearly that they should not be and should not be permitted to be in Islington's residential streets or, for that matter, on the thoroughfare Maitland Road.

But so far Newcastle police have done nothing, or nothing effective, about moving them on. The State Member for Newcastle, Jodi McKay, and the Lord Mayor, John Tate, talk of cleaning the streets, and toilets, and closing and opening roads, and even setting up a street prostitution area on Kooragang Island, but no-one except the residents is demanding that police enforce the law. Perhaps they're worried the prostitutes will move to their neighbourhood.

What's your take on this?