‘Drug deals’ unfold on people’s doorsteps in Wicklow Street

POLICE said it was not possible to “arrest our way out” of the King’s Cross drug crisis as officers told residents there was no simple solution that would give them back their quality of life.

They were speaking at a meeting at the Derby Lodge Tenants Hall after the New Journal’s reports on how out of control dealing was making life a misery for people living in and around Wicklow Street.

Photographs showed large gatherings on people’s doorsteps and in children’s play areas.

“I’m not going to sit here and lie,” said Inspector Lee Davies. “The Met, it is known, it is a shrinking organisation – it is not going to get any better soon. The Class A users … it is not an issue we can arrest out way out of. These people have historic and embedded lifestyle issues. Putting them before the justice system isn’t necessarily the right course of action. Targeting the drug dealers will have more of an impact. To get that, it takes a long time. I share the residents pain about how long that takes.”

The officer described the kind of drug-taking seen in Wicklow Street as a “societal problem” and a “vacuum” with endless replacements from the “drugs industry” ready to “fill the space” left by those who were temporarily jailed.

Pat Callaghan, second from the right, listens to concerns

Another Met officer, PC Mick O’Grady, told the meeting: “King’s Cross is a big area. There is a small team. I appreciate the issues that you are going through, having been a police officer for quite a while. But there is no magic tree. I wish there was. I would like to give you back your quality of life.

“I appreciate you want an immediate solution. I am not going to come and waffle. We don’t live in a perfect world.”

Community safety chief Labour councillor Pat Callaghan said: “We can only work with the resources we have got. There has been austerity all the way through. The police numbers are much less that there used to be. We will do our best but we have to work with the resources we have got.”

But a resident warned of a contrasting image of King’s Cross – on different sides of the Euston Road.

“We are hearing now that we have a £20billion black hole in budget, so let’s not hope for more resources,” they said. “In the last 10 years you have managed to completely transform the other side of Kings Cross, which is luxurious and safe. On the meantime you have allowed this place to become a no man’s land.”

The huge development of King’s Cross – where global corporations have offices like Google and Facebook – does not have the same problems as streets like Wicklow Street.

Responding, Cllr Callaghan said: “I can’t tell you how much money went into King’s Cross by developers. We negotiated, but didn’t get that much out of it. For you to say we looked after that side but not this side, that’s wrong. A lot of money went into that area. There is a lot of money that people have paid for those flats.”

The resident said in reply: “So we have to wait to be gentrified and be forced out of our neighbourhoods?” People living in the street told the meeting that CCTV made no difference to people with heavy addiction, who were too desperate to care about the law, and that they had provided countless images and films to officers without any response.

In a heated moment, another resident said: “You are telling us we have to work with what we have got. It is not working. It is getting worse and worse and worse. It’s deeply troubling.We’ve written to councillors and our local MP and nothing gets done. It’s only because it’s been highlighted by the New Journal that this is being taken seriously.”