Islington's Lib Dem administration has cancelled a key meeting that was due to consider a dispersal order to help move along kerb crawlers and prostitutes gathering around Caledonian Park.

A motion, backed by a hundred-person petition, was brought to the October Council meeting, but Lib Dem Councillors voted to send it to the Executive meeting on November 20th instead. The November Executive has now been cancelled, and a private committee is reported to have recommended against the action.

Councillor Paul Smith, Deputy Leader of Islington Labour Group, said: "This is outrageous. The council has a duty to act swiftly on issues of crime and anti-social behaviour and yet the executive can't be bothered to discuss this. A dispersal order would give police much greater powers to move people on if they are behaving suspiciously."

Insult was added to injury when a local resident spotted a council worker disappearing into the park with an alleged prostitute.

In an interview with the Islington Gazette, the witness said:

"The council is supposed to be helping clear this problem up not adding to it. The young girls on the estate get people like this asking them for business all the time.

"I've seen lots of company vans kerb-crawling but you don't expect it from the council - especially first thing in the morning."