General thoughts about posts on Drug Centre
I am new to this site -- and posting in general -- but I just wanted to say that I was very upset to read a number of the postings on this topic, as it seems as if Brixton resident is being turned against Brixton resident, and the arguments risk making out one ‘side' or another to be bad guys, when I think we all want the same thing – for our streets to be safer. Some of the comments come from people in and around Rushcroft and Saltoun Roads, and I know from friends who live there how bad things are.
All I want to say is that people living in Brighton Terrace are desperate. All our problems – from the terrifying dealers patrolling their territory with violence and threats, prostitutes fucking on the stairwells, sad junkies shooting up in our communal gardens, to the needles and human turds in our playground – are drug-related, and if we thought SLaM's Drug rehabilitation unit sited here had a microscopic chance of helping in any way we would welcome it. But we don't. We think it will make it worse.
The service will bring more drug users to our neighbourhood -- a huge number will be chaotic users not even in treatment programmes, attracted by the needle exchange. SLaM have blithely said there's no problem with this at the Stockwell project, but the situations are very different. The entrance to Stockwell is on a main road, by a massive roundabout, and with constant traffic. Brighton Terrace is a quiet residential street particularly vulnerable (and attractive) for dealers and drug users because of the way the flats are laid out and slightly set back from the road: there are numerous small entrances, semi-enclosed spaces, bin stores, garages, sheds etc. Dealers (and customers) use them now – waiting until the police patrols have passed by – and its unthinkable that they won't be further attracted to this area and its potential new sources of custom. (They are either so expert at avoiding police surveillance, or don't seem to care, so we don't think SLaM's offer of a daytime warden will have much effect.)
And we do have evidence that in areas where there is a major, open, illegal drugs market the presence of a needle exchange can lead to an increase in problems. This has been described in the Health Impact Assessment by Camden and the City of Westminster (Health Impact Assessment of a Proposal to Establish a Fixed Site for Needle Exchange and Other Services in the West End, 2004). The HIA report states that a fixed needle exchange would have adverse consequences (p12) on amenity for residents and businesses, including the attraction of drug users and drug dealers to the area and an increase in crime and antisocial behaviour. Residents, the business community and service providers agreed (p97) that needle exchange services:
* act as a magnet for drug users and dealers;
* lead to more discarded drug equipment, antisocial deposits, drug-related crime, antisocial behaviour and drug using/dealing in public.
The history of needle exchange provision in the West End (HIA, p43, 4.2.1), shows that at one point the needle exchange service had such an adverse impact on the amenity of residents that the service was restricted to 3 hours a day as a result of Ministerial intervention.
The HIA viewed the consequences of setting up a fixed exchange to be so serious that they suggested, in addition to the lengthy health impact assessment, that an environmental impact assessment should be undertaken once a potential fixed site had been identified ‘to demonstrate that the fixed site and the way in which it is managed will not attract congregations of users, nor encourage injecting in public.' That Lambeth never considered doing any kind of assessment is very worrying, and adds to our somewhat paranoid feelings that Lambeth and SLaM were determined to push this through no matter what the consequences for us.
They certainly didn't consult us until after the decision had been made. SLaM (and Lambeth Council) had decided on Brighton Terrace as the site, and applied for planning permission, by February. Residents (and our local councillors) knew nothing about the project until six weeks later, at the first so-called ‘consultation meeting' in March. By then it was a ‘done deal', and SLaM had already rejected alternative sites, including what seems to us a good location in Acre Lane (the old SEGAS building) which is on a main road next to an industrial estate, served by a number of bus routes and not far from Clapham North. [Despite this SLaM cited ‘transport links' in their rejection, which made us think they were more mindful of their staff -- travelling from many locations including Brighton -- needing the Victoria line, rather than users from the south of the borough who don't.] SLaM actually think this is a good site – and are seriously considering buying it!
Brighton Terrace residents are a desperately concerned group, and it's upsetting to see us portrayed in some of these posts as selfish middle-class nimbys. Most residents are council tenants in social housing, whose homes are surrounded by a bad situation and we think the location of the proposed treatment centre will make it worse.
