Amsterdam’s much heralded ban on street intimidation is unlikely to come into effect in practice, the Parool reported on Tuesday.

The city’s new mayor Femke Halsema has a number of objections to the ban, which was enshrined in the city’s bylaws in 2017 but has not yet been fully enacted.

Halsema says not only is is difficult to catch someone in the act, but that enforcing the ban will cost a lot in terms of manpower. Legally, it is also difficult to prove because of freedom of expression legislation, she says.

‘A ban on hissing is only dealing with the symptoms,’ Halsema is quoted as saying by the paper. ‘You have to use education and get rid of the idea that is completely normal to shout at women in the street.’

A majority of city councillors from across the political spectrum also back Halsema’s plan not to start actively enforcing the law.

A similar ban has been enacted in Rotterdam and several cases have come to trial.

In December, a 36-year-old Rotterdam man was fined €200 for harassing two women in the street, in the first conviction of its kind in the Netherlands.

The man, seen as a test case by the public prosecution department, was convicted on the basis of evidence from street wardens rather than complaints from the women themselves and the case has gone to appeal.

Draft national legislation which would make street intimidation a criminal offence is currently being looked at by the Council of State.