KERB crawlers would have their cars confiscated under new legislation being advocated by a North-East police chief.

Middlesbrough Superintendent Graham Strange is calling for the police to be given powers to arrest kerb crawlers, endorse their licences - and seize their cars.

"These people should not be allowed to drive," said Supt Strange, chairman of Middlesbrough's multi-agency prostitution task force.

His ideas are being put to Home Secretary Jack Straw through the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) - with the rider that Middlesbrough is made a pilot area for the new measures, if they are introduced.

Supt Strange revealed the move as 100 residents, armed with placards and a petition, protested about prostitutes and pimps turning the town centre into a red light district.

Win Logan, chairwoman of Abingdon Residents Association, spoke of her and her neighbours' "distress'' at regularly witnessing pimps beating up prostitutes.

Such a scene was witnessed by 35-year-old Marie Winwood as she brought her seven-year-old daughter home from school, this week. The child also found a used condom, which Mrs Winwood said litter the lanes behind the terraces in the Southfield Road area.

The demonstration was organised by the Southfield Road mosque committee. Chairman Mehdi Mobeen said prostitutes preyed on Muslims attending prayers at the mosque. He also said that the protest had been partially triggered by an attempt by one of the vice girls to coax a 14-year-old local Muslim girl into prostitution.

"The situation is appalling and just totally unacceptable,'' said the businessman, who handed petitions to senior police officers.

Supt Strange said: "Prostitution does have a serious impact on the quality of life of the people who live in this area. The protest today sends out to kerb crawlers and those in the vice trade that they are not welcome.

"I understand the Government is looking at giving police the power to arrest kerb crawlers. That will make a difference overnight, but it needs to go further. They should be considering penalty points or revocation of drivers' licences - and seizing kerb crawlers' cars, taking them off the road."

He has written to Tim Brain, Gloucestershire Police's deputy chief constable and ACPO's spokesman on vice