Communities against drugs … with or without the community
Last summer, following the first IWCA public meeting on tackling crack and heroin dealing, the police attempted to boost their flagging credibility on Blackbird Leys by announcing that £170,000 from the government’s Communities Against Drugs (CAD) scheme had been made available to tackle drug problems in Oxford. Six months on, the new Leys CAD initiative has been set up, with the IWCA included on the steering group. But although the project has an ambitious set of targets, what are its chances of success?
When the IWCA set out to tackle the problem of crack and heroin dealing on Blackbird Leys, in response to the high level of concern amongst residents, we knew it would be a long-term undertaking. So far we have conducted a number of successful campaigns, putting an end to persistent antisocial behaviour and forcing out a number of tenants who were dealing in hard drugs and making their neighbours’ lives a misery.
However, there is a long way to go. The IWCA is still receiving numerous reports of dealing being carried out openly in several parts of the estate. Only with the ongoing involvement of the community can we continue to reclaim areas of the Blackbird Leys from the dealers.
In addition to this, funding is required for rehabilitation, giving chronic users the chance to come off heroin and reduce demand for the substance. More resources need to be provided for youth facilities in order to keep youngsters occupied and steer them away from involvement with hard drugs, while support must also be made available for families trying to cope with children addicted to heroin and other harmful substances.
The Leys Communities Against Drugs (CAD) project, set up by the Leys Linx Partnership, aims to provide comprehensive information identifying the nature and scale of the drug problem on Blackbird Leys and to come up with an action plan which can be used to seek funding for initiatives to deal with various aspects of this problem.
But while £170,000 of Communities Against Drugs funding has been allocated to Ox-
ford (this money is for use mainly by the police, working with other agencies), only £11,000 has been secured for the project on Blackbird Leys so far.
This will pay for research conducted by Brookes University, and for a ‘project development’ worker to be made available for a limited period. However, if the Leys CAD project is unable to obtain further funding then what will be the end result of this exercise?
The Leys Communities Against Drugs initiative has an ambitious set of targets, which include the ‘involvement and participation of local individuals and groups in the development of a Leys based Tackling Drugs Network, in conjunction with key agencies and organisations’. Among the ‘key agencies’ it is Thames Valley Police that are likely to play the predominant role.
However, it is difficult to see how an effective working relationship can be formed between members of the community and the police while there is a widespread perception among residents that the police are not interested in seriously addressing the problem. As long as the police remain unaccountable to the community they are supposed to serve and operate mainly according to an exclusive agenda then it seems highly unlikely this situation will be turned around.
Without significant involvement from the community, the Leys CAD project will only make a difference if it brings in resources, such as rehabilitation facilities, youth provision and counselling for users’ families. Unfortunately, the political and economic climate fostered by the Tories and maintained by New Labour means that funding to tackle social problems in working class areas is all too often inadequate and comes with strings attached.
The IWCA representative on the CAD steering group, Maurice Lean, points out that ‘funding coming from central government and spent by local authorities in its current restrictive, and most crucially, diminishing state means that the initiative can only promise the most marginal and short-term benefits.’
What is undeniable is that Blackbird Leys desperately needs sustained funding to help the community tackle the problem of crack and heroin dealing before it gets worse. But even though New Labour councillors and the police have both been forced to pay lip-service to the community’s concerns there is little evidence of the determination or resources needed to solve it.
The IWCA will be continuing in its efforts to tackle the problem with the backing of the community.
Leys Independent, issue 17, March 2003
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