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New Storytellers: Anything Goes in Holbeck

Anything Goes in Holbeck

BBC Radio 4 - New Storytellers, Anything Goes in Holbeck

An insight into Leeds’ dedicated zone for the legalised selling and buying of street sex.

In Leeds there is an area where it is legal to sell or buy street sex - but residents are not happy. Producer Charlotte Hurrell and friends spent two nights there to find out why.

In 2014, Leeds City Council established a managed approach in a small industrial zone of Holbeck, which allowed the legal buying and selling of sex during night time hours. 

The Council believed that legalisation of street sex would keep crime down and make the area safer with police patrols, health checks and support for sex workers, and a dedicated street cleaning team. But Holbeck residents say they do not feel safe. They're concerned and angry about the managed approach on their doorstep and have stories to tell - including how schoolgirls have been mistakenly approached by punters. 

On two cold winter nights in February, producer Charlotte Hurrell and her friends Clara and Shemariah spoke to the sex workers and recorded punters during the legal working hours of 8pm to 6am, to capture first-hand if street sex can truly be managed.  They also hear the views of Teela Saunders from the University of Leicester, who has researched sex work for the past 20 years, and the stories of an exited sex worker who shares how past experiences have affected her life. 

New Storytellers presents the work of new radio and audio producers, and this series features the five winners of the 2020 Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Radio Feature. Anything Goes in Holbeck was originally produced in 2019 by Charlotte Hurrell during her last final as a Birmingham City University student. Judges regarded it a “bold, brave piece of investigative journalism with a sense of danger and tension” with particular praise for the reporting team.

Producer: Charlotte Hurrell
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4

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New work from winners of the Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Radio Feature.

New work by radio and audio producers new to BBC Radio 4 from the five winners of this year's Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Radio Feature.

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