Police will patrol the tolerance zone

The scheme aims to help protect the women from violence.

Police will patrol and monitor the zone.

It is estimated more than 200 women work as prostitutes in Aberdeen's red light district.

A similar initiative last November failed in Edinburgh after Leith residents protested about the tolerance zone.

Despite prostitutes being given strict guidelines, such as when they could congregate and how many people were permitted in the area, complaints forced the initiative to be abandoned.

Residents threatened court action if the zone was not moved on.

At the time, support group Scotpep said cancelling such initiatives would increase the dangers of serious assaults and other problems.

Scotpep project manager Ruth Morgan-Thomas said that police had tried their best to help prostitutes and kept them away from "pimps, pushers and women-beaters".

However, the threat of a judicial review ended any hope a successful initiative, she added.