Police Report

This is my first year on the CGCA Executive committee. When I was elected last year my main concern for the area was the alarming increase in drug abuse and all the crime attached to it. I have attended many local Police and Project Lilac meetings to try to get an open view as to what is going on and how we can make our area a better and safer place to live.

I can only conclude that the past year has seen a frightening increase of drug abuse.

Project Lilac has only highlighted the problems we are having in our area. With all the good will of the officers on the team, we constantly have more statistics about the problem but no conclusion on how to contain it.

We have met with St Mungo Hostel in Endell Street. St Mungo's has been in the area for a long time with the intent of housing homeless people to enable them to get a job and move on to better things.

Nowadays it is full of homeless drug abusers. Over sixty regular drug users who think they have a right to make this area their home. They are supplied with clean needles, available at the hostel, and are constantly shooting up all over the area, particularly Dudley Court, Winter Garden House and the Drury Lane Moat House Hotel complex.

In my opinion, it is irresponsible to house these people in an area visited by endless numbers of tourists who are only too willing to part with their euros for the chance to buy our local addicts a nice shot of heroin. Add that to the endless number of drug dealers ready to supply the goods to them and, if all fails, you can always put a window through. About 90 of them in four streets off the Seven Dials alone in the past year (multiply that by all the streets in Covent Garden and you can see how bad it is).

The area also received publicity in the front page of the Daily Mail in February, with a full page photograph of a drain in Tower Court containing some 50 used needles. What a wonderful advertisement for our area! More of us have to get involved. Please contact me through the CGCA if you wish to help.

Malcolm Davey

 

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