LIVERPOOL will learn in the New Year whether it has won government backing for a managed prostitute zone.
If it gets the go-ahead, the council will start again to gather information about a suitable site.
The city asked Home Office officials for permission to pilot a zone as part of a national consultation on prostitution. The results of that consultation will be published in January.
Supporters say a zone would improve safety for sex workers.
Their call followed the killing of prostitutes Pauline Stevens and Hanane Parry in 2003.
Last September, Anne Marie Foy was strangled and battered to death in Crown Street near the Royal Hospital.
The zone would take the Dutch model of a street sex workers' area,, including health and welfare support for prostitutes, which has been pioneered in the Doncaster area. Liverpool's executive member for housing and social care, Cllr Flo Clucas, said: "There's great support from Liverpool's residents, businesses and even the sex workers.
"Our proposed managed zone will not only keep the girls safe but will also offer them a way out of prostitution."
There would be zero tolerance to prostitution and kerb-crawling outside the area.
The move has been opposed by Merseyside's Chief Constable, Bernard Hogan-Howe, who says that he would prefer legalised brothels which can be properly policed, and by Wavertree MP Jane Kennedy.
Five sites, three in the Kempston Street area and two in the Jamaica Street area, have been suggested.
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