Labour and Lib Dems attack community patrols against drug dealers
IWCA ignores party politicking to secure agreement on rehab funding
The IWCA has pushed through a council motion calling for a minimum of three year’s funding for a Blackbird Leys drugs rehabilitation drop-in centre. The decision goes against an earlier Executive Board ruling that the Community Action and Development centre (formerly Communities Against Drugs) should rely on charitable funding.
However, the Labour and Lib Dem groups on the council ganged up to condemn the IWCA’s anti-drugs patrol, tacking on an amendment stating that groups that ‘go “on patrol” are not only unhelpful but dangerous’ and labelling such activities as ‘vigilantism’.
IWCA councillor Stuart Craft said, ‘I’m glad the council has been shamed into agreeing that the Executive Board’s original decision not to provide any further public funding for CAD was wrong. However, I’m saddened that the main parties only see this as an opportunity to play politics and attack the IWCA.
‘By calling us vigilantes these middle class parties are condemning attempts by the working class community of Blackbird Leys to take lawful collective action to tackle crack and heroin dealing. Yet they offer no effective response to the problem themselves—it’s as if they are on the side of the dealers.
‘Their approach to rehabilitation and treatment is equally lacking. My suspicion is that the amendment was an attempt to get me to withdraw the original motion which exposed the inadequacy of the Executive Board’s approach to drugs work in the city.’
Government funding for the Blackbird Leys CAD centre ran out in July this year but after the IWCA called for extra funds at the South East Area Committee the centre was awarded £12,000 by a group of organisations including the council and police so it could remain open until December. In the meantime it was expected that CAD would be turned into a charity.
The IWCA has consistently argued that any serious approach to drugs treatment and rehabilitation requires long-term funding to prevent resources being concentrated on applying for grants rather than actually tackling the problem itself. Considering the scale of the drugs problem nationally, levels of government funding are woefully inadequate.
The motion presented by the IWCA states that funding should be allocated to Blackbird Leys CAD for ‘at least a three-year period to allow the group to establish itself, thus ensuring long term viability both in terms of staffing and premises’ and requires the city council’s Executive Board to reconsider its earlier decision in light of this.
Police raids show why patrols are needed
A series of police raids took place at the beginning of the month at addresses on Blackbird Leys, including a flat in Moorbank—an area identified in an IWCA survey as one of the worst on the estate for open dealing.
Cllr Craft commented, ‘It’s good they are taking action. One of the purposes of the community patrol was to force the police to be accountable and deal with the problem. We’ll soon find out whether the raids have had an impact on the levels of street dealing, which is what residents in Balfour Road and Moorbank were most concerned about.’
Leys Independent, issue 30, November 2005
| 
