'Safe space' bus to support city sex workers

Saffires already sends staff to help women working on the streets of Leicester

A charity is raising money to buy a minibus to provide a "safe space" for sex workers on the streets of Leicester.

Saffires said the vehicle would be a mobile base where women will be able to get food and hot drinks, toiletries and condoms and other support.

It is hoping to raise £44,000 to buy and equip the bus.

The charity said the vehicle would help women who are in "inherently dangerous" work.

Becky Panting, from the Saffires charity, said women who worked in the sex industry were often forgotten

Charity spokeswoman Becky Panting said there there were several hundred women in Leicester and the surrounding towns selling sex.

She said: "The bus will make it easier to engage with women when they're ready, whether that's to get help with a court hearing or making a lifestyle change and leaving the industry."

"It's inherently harmful work," she added.

"The death rate of women involved in prostitution is over two hundred times higher than women in any other occupation.

"We just want to reach out to this group of women who are often forgotten, who are often judged and sidelined and want to get out there and let them know that not everyone has forgotten them."