Crunch meeting next week to unveil drug centre plan

A DRUG needle exchange is set to open in a public lavatory, sparking fears that the service will be a magnet for trouble.
Camden Council and Camden Primary Care Trust (CPCT) plan to open the centre in a disused toilet in the subway below Centrepoint in Tottenham Court Road, Bloomsbury. Health experts insisted on Wednesday that it would help users access services and reduce dangerous debris like dirty syringes being dumped in the streets.
But the proposals have stirred one of the biggest protests the area has seen with residents associations across Bloomsbury, Covent Garden and Soho joining forces to fight the plans.
A fraught public meeting on Tuesday night at the Freemasons Hall in Great Queen Street, Covent Garden, revealed splits in the community and saw Conservative councillors from Westminster questioning the choice of sites.
Tory councillor Alexander Nicoll said Camden had not done enough research, adding: “It would be better placed near to an NHS centre where drug users could make use of other services.”
Labour councillors from Camden are due to go head-to-head with objectors again next Wednesday night when the final details of the plan will be hammered out at an open-to-all cabinet meeting.
A blueprint reveals how Camden is the only borough in London not to have a fixed exchange service – although it does have a roving van.
Background reports insist there is a need for a fixed centre where users can be weaned off hard drugs.
Dr Rob Larkman, the CPCT’s chief executive, said at a press briefing: “This will be a well managed service. We see it as a treatment gateway to services for users.
“The site is not near residential areas in the way that other sites that we considered were. It should reduce the number of dirty, discarded needles in the street and the spread of HIV and Hepatitis B and C between drug users sharing needles.”
Officials say there is no evidence that fixed needle exchange will be a magnet for trouble.
Camden crime czar Anthony Brooks, a former police chief, added: “We will be able to contain the service. It will be a secure unit, there will be CCTV and street wardens will patrol the surrounding streets.
“Drug users come to the area because of the markets not necessarily the services like needle exchanges.”
The project, however, has failed to win over residents who will demand a re-think.
Jim Murray, from the Bloomsbury Association, said in a deputation representing dozens of worried groups, that the area had been scarred by drug use.
He said: “The area south of Euston Road including St Giles, has suffered from serious and continuous street based drugs activity, associated anti-social behaviour and crime for the past seven years that has left a deep scar on our community.
“This has become the most important factor in the degradation of our quality of life.
“We can show documentary evidence of large numbers of used needle found over the last three years, and more than 900 anti-social behaviour reports of which more than 95 per cent are drug related over the past nine months in Bloomsbury.”
He added: “Tens of millions of pounds are being invested into redeveloping St Giles High Street.
“This proposal is an affront to everyone that has tried to help improve community safety.”