Petition protests at failure to clear drugs dealers and addicts from the streets

POLICE and the Town Hall are failing in the war against drugs, worried residents warned on Friday.
Grim but chillingly familiar reports of addicts shooting up in daylight and dealers brazenly selling class A drugs on street corners emerged when protesters rounded on ward councillors.
Residents living in Camden Town’s drug-hit back streets told the politicians that it was time to put up or shut up in the fight against crack peddlers.
They said that the time for talking was over and that several rounds of meetings between residents and Camden Council had failed to find a solution.
A petition signed by more than 450 people was handed to Labour councillors Jake Sumner and Pat Callaghan, and police chief Inspector John Daley, at a meeting in Greenland Road on Friday afternoon.
Mother-of-three Natalie Thompson, who lives in Baynes Street, said: “My older boys are five and seven. They know who are the addicts and who are the dealers.
“We have meetings but nothing is done. I’ve had to move needles in my block. I have seen addicts injecting in their groin and nothing is done. I don’t want my children seeing that.”
Campaigner Josie Kelly, from Camden Town Speaks, added: “We are just feeding the drug barons because we are not the helping the children. We are not educating them. We need an anti-drugs awareness campaign. We are the adults. We are the ones that need to help them.”
Petition organiser Aftab Ahmed, a newsagent who was attacked by addicts in his shop last year, said: “The petition started in Greenland Road but it got bigger and bigger because people from all of Camden Town wanted to sign.”
Several protesters told the councillors and police they could not understand why familiar faces had not been taken off the streets – even though they were recognised on a day-to-day basis.
Some said users of crack, the highly addictive cocaine derivative that makes users tense and aggressive, were passing it in mouth-to-mouth transactions as dealers dodged police.
Inspector Daley said: “We need to communicate that operations are taking place and will continue to take place.
“We are happy to keep the dialogue with residents going so we can hear what they are saying. What people see and tell us they see is not always evidence that we can use to get a conviction in court but there are operations going on. We are using drug dogs in Camden Town.”
Cllr Sumner told protesters that the petition was “an important document” which would help in the future.
He said: “We recognise that there is a problem. It does ebb and flow but we recognise that in summer it does get worse.”
Cllr Callaghan added: “I saw a deal taking place this morning. We understand the concerns and we are taking them up.
“There should be another push on the government to get more police officers on the street in this area because Camden has such a problem and is an exception.”

• Plans to open a police base in the former headquarters of Camden Town Neighbourhood Advice Centre in Greenland Street have stalled. The building has remained empty since the charity’s eviction 18 months ago.
Cllr Callaghan said: “A police base here would obviously help and all we can do is keep putting the pressure on to make it happen.”