Shutters come down on Birchfield crack-house
A six month campaign by the IWCA to get a major drugs den on Blackbird Leys shut down is now close to achieving its goal.
With the courts having recently awarded ‘outright possession’ of 23 Birchfield Close to Oxford City Council, it now appears very likely that the flat will be repossessed within the next few
weeks. Although, technically, the tenants do have the right of appeal, a drugs raid on the property over the Christmas period is likely to make this option untenable.
As previously reported in the Leys Independent (issue 24, July 2004), local Labour councillors and the police were quick to condemn the IWCA’s Stuart Craft for highlighting their lack of effort
on this case.
However, before approaching Cllr Craft, Birchfield Close residents had waited in vain for over two years for action to be taken against the crack-house—having written to local Labour MP Andrew Smith
and Blackbird Leys Labour councillors. During this time the police carried out numerous raids, with little effect.
Responding to criticism from Thames Valley Police at the South East Area Committee in June last year, Stuart Craft said, ‘It is my belief that Thames Valley Police’s strategy is to watch the flat in
the hope they may gather evidence for a big drugs bust which they can parade in front of the media. If this is the case then I would like to register my opposition to such a strategy, which allows decent
residents, some of whom are elderly, to suffer while the police wait for a result they may never get.’
The IWCA recommended that it would be more practical to concentrate on evicting the tenant of number 23 so as to bring the neighbouring residents’ ordeal to an end.
Commenting on the recent news of the anticipated repossession of the property, Cllr Craft said, ‘This welcome turn of events at Birchfield Close shows what can be achieved as a result of a determined
multi-agency approach that puts the tenants first. We hope this way of working can be adopted on a more widespread basis in future.’
Leys Independent, issue 26, January 2005
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