Sex workers based on roundabout outside city of Lleida have to don high visibility vests or pay €40

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

Roadside prostitutes working on a roundabout outside the Spanish city of Lleida have begun wearing yellow reflective bibs to avoid fines from police.

The prostitutes have donned the high visibility vests, similar to those worn by road workers or drivers whose cars have broken down, to save themselves the €40 (£36) fines.

Police said they were not trying to get rid of the prostitutes, but were simply including them in a push to enforce use of the fluorescent bibs, which must be worn by anyone walking down a rural highway.

A police spokesman said: "In the past couple of months the prostitutes have been fined for two reasons: for not wearing the reflective jacket and for creating danger on the public highway."

Police say they have no other reason for fining the prostitutes, whose chosen spot on a roundabout of the LL-11 road falls just outside the municipal boundaries of Lleida – which recently banned street prostitution.

The move comes amid a wider debate over prostitution in Spain, where it thrives in a context that is part legal and part illegal. Scantily-clad sex workers can be seen on roads outside many cities, although only those in Lleida are believed to wear reflective jackets.

Neither of the country's main parties have a clear policy on the matter.

Prime minister José Luis Rodrígue Zapatero's Socialists have failed to deliver on a pledge to eradicate prostitution adverts – which are carried by almost all daily newspapers – from the press.

Some members of the conservative opposition People's party, including Madrid's regional prime minister Esperanza Aguirre, wants to regulate prostitution. But many in her party oppose that.

"If we legalise prostitution, we will be legalising the pimp who handles the women," said councillor Ana Botella, wife of former prime minister José María Aznar and the head of Madrid social services.