It was the sight of a prostitute injecting drugs into her groin on the backseat of a car in full view of residents in the neat terraced street in Beeston, Leeds, that convinced artist Claire Bentley-Smith it was time to act.

Britain’s first official red light district in neighbouring Holbeck, a sprawling mix of industrial units, car businesses and open wasteland, had until last summer rarely impinged on her life with her husband, a theatre set designer, and nine-year-old son.

She returned with her son to school for the autumn term to hear parents and teachers tell of condoms, needles and soiled tissues discarded by prostitutes not only in parks and woodland but in the grounds of St Luke’s, her Church of England primary, which the caretaker had to clear each morning.

“We had girls staggering into moving traffic with no socks and shoes on when it was snowing, in an absolute blind state from drugs,” she said. “It’s so distressing for parents and children to see that on the school run in the morning.”