A conservative Christian lobby group has released a poll showing three in four people believe councils should have the power to ban street prostitution as they see fit.

Councils can impose restrictions on the location of brothels under the Prostitution Reform Act (PRA), a landmark piece of legislation that passed in 2003 legalising solicitation and brothel-keeping.

But the act fails to account for street-based sex work, a regulatory gap that Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb believes is not fair to sex workers, councils or residents.

SUPPLIED Family First national director Bob McCoskrie has described the decriminalisation of prostitution as a 'community disaster'.

The Family First-commissioned poll of 1000 people, carried out by Curia Market Research, found 76 per cent of respondents agreed councils should have the power to ban street prostitution at their discretion.

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"The 'red light' district should never be given the 'green light' in residential and family areas," said Family First national director Bob McCoskrie.

"There have been ongoing concerns about the negative effects of street prostitution and the associated conduct in Christchurch and also South Auckland, and the local councils have been powerless to act appropriately."

The poll also showed 61 per cent of respondents did not believe brothels should operate in residential areas. Family First was calling for a review of the PRA, which McCoskrie described as a hospital pass to local councils.

Catherine Healey, of the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective, described the poll result as predictable and an easy score for Family First, a group which counted the recriminalisation of brothels among its objectives.

Any effort by councils to introduce bylaws restricting where prostitutes could work and introducing fines as a deterrent would be a return to "what we had before, and it failed".

"The best approach is not to have a regulatory approach but to work with the community groups who are working with the sex workers and develop relationships with them and come up with common solutions.

"The issue around zoning we know to be pretty unrealistic and would burden councils if you were to say to them to take care of zoning. It just simply doesn't work."

The poll follows news the Ombudsman is investigating the Christchurch City Council over its decision not to enforce a bylaw proponents say could be used to restrict where sex workers operate.

Residents living close to the corner of Purchas and Manchester streets, a block north of Bealey Ave, have put up with sex workers outside their homes for almost seven years.

They have had to clean up faeces, used condoms and needles, and found used wet wipes in their letterboxes. Their children repeatedly get woken up by sex workers and their clients disputing prices and have had people having sex on their properties.

Webb had complained to the Ombudsman that the council was excluding sex work activities from enforcement under the Public Places Bylaw, which prohibits all commercial activities in public places without council permission.

The Christchurch Central MP believed the bylaw was sufficient to deal with the problem, something the council disagreed with due to the difficulty of proving a transaction had taken place.

A staff report from earlier this year found a bylaw restricting street prostitution would open up the council to legal challenges and could violate the Bill of Rights.

"The council would need to prove a commercial activity is occurring in a public place," the report said.

The report said with street-based sex work, the commercial transaction/activity being undertaken for payment often did not happen in a public place. It happened on empty private property and in cars.

"There is also no clear 'advertising' taking place."

Advertising is included as a commercial activity under the bylaw. Matt Bonis, a spokesman for St Albans residents affected by prostitution in the area, questioned what sex workers were doing on street corners if not advertising their services.

"If you've got a street-based sex worker waving at a car and showing her bits, she's actively trying to get a sale from a commercial activity. Our view is it falls under that clause. There's nothing else it could be," he said.

"I think the Christchurch City Council is conflating an issue about the vulnerability of the girls and the moralistic side of things rather than just treating it if it was any other commercial endeavour, it's definitely a bit biased.

"We don't have an issue with what they're doing, we just have an issue with where they're doing it."

The council voted in November not to develop a bylaw restricting where street-based sex workers could operate, and instead moved to create a collaborative working group to support their relocation.

The Family First-commissioned poll was carried out from December 11-13 using a random sample of nationwide phone numbers.