memespring

Not that it will be news to many people, but
Brixton has a drug problem. Not the open smoking of weed that
the media got obsessed with when Brian Paddock implemented sensible
policing a couple of years back. But crack and heroin.

Especially
crack. Residents and shopkeepers intimidated; people taking
post-injecting shits on your doorstep; needles on the street;
shoplifting; kids who’s mates aren’t allowed to visit because their parents are
scared of their kids visitng the street they live on; shops
closing etc; etc.

There are loads of reasons for this, lack of
police resources in central Brixton,  drug tourism (people
treating buying skunk from Cold Harbor Lane as just anopther part a night out in
Brixton, along with a visit to the Academy and a piss-up in Living)
and a lack of treatment facilities are just a few.

So you would think that a proposal
to open a drug treatment centre on Brighton Terrace in central
Brixton would be welcomed? Apparently not.

Instead, following a small campaign by immediate residents of Brighton Terrace, none of the councilors responsible for granting
planning were
willing to second the proposal . Most have taken up position
firmly on the fence by retreating to a position of supporting
a drugs centre in principle but, but refusing to name a new site. The
views of, or benefits to the wider Brixton community don’t appear to
have been taken into account.

The local MP fairs no better. Kate
Hoey has stated she
favors the site on Acre Lane already turned down by the NHS and Lambeth DAAT. Also, as luck would have it, it is also just
outside her constituency in Keith
Hill’s neighboring Streatham. Ping-pong anyone?

It’s not that the concerns of residents on
Brighton Terrace are totally unfounded. Obviously if a drug centre
was being opened near you, you would ask questions. But their main
arguments just don’t seem to stand up: 

That it shoulden’t be in a residential area -
Lambeth is one of the most populous areas in London.

That it shoulden’t be sited in an area of known
drug use - surely that’s where the drug users are?

That there is a children’s playground near by -
the council and police have proposed a dedicated safety warden and
the alternative site they are proposing on Acre Lane is near a
school.

<!–
@page { margin: 2cm }
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm }
–>

It is also worth noting that Brighton Terrace, and
the next door Trinity Gardens, are one of the more affluent areas of
central Brixton (Mostly due to high house prices and levels of owner
occupancy). My reading of the whole thing is that the councilors are
scared of upsetting this particular constituency more than they are
concerned with the levels of hard drug use and dealing in Brixton.

So basically it looks like the whole thing is
being lined up for a boot into the long grass. In the meantime users
go untreated and we all suffer the effects.

It goes back to  to the planning committee
on  Tuesday 29th November. In the mean time  some of us
have
set up a petition on the back of the MyBrixton
mailing list.