Drug dealers ply their trade under cover of darkness
Every night residents of the Starwort Path flats on Blackbird Leys are forced
to put up with youths dealing heroin and crack-cocaine directly outside their
homes. The drug dealers are attracted to the area by the pitch darkness—a result
of the street lights being permanently out of action.
Residents have complained repeatedly to Oxford City Council about three
street lights being broken, one for six years and two others for two years.
According to Stuart Craft of the IWCA, ‘Tenants feel abandoned and many are
frightened to leave their homes at night because of the crack dealers. However,
the council has just ignored the problem.’
Oxford City Council was contacted a month ago and promised to send out a surveyor to
investigate the lights. However, residents report that no one from the council
has been near the place. The IWCA also issued a press release to the Oxford
Mail who sent out a reporter and interviewed people living in the flats. But
despite getting residents hopes up no story has appeared so far.
It seems the Oxford Mail is determined to continue its policy of
ignoring the drug dealing problem on the estate. Previously, their reporter
Andrew Ffrench refused to cover an IWCA press release about crack dealing in
Gillians Park on the grounds that he did not want to upset New Labour MP Andrew
Smith.
The IWCA has now taken up the matter at the recent Iffley-Leys Area Committee
meeting. New Labour councillor Val Smith said she had done a street surgery at
the Starwort Path flats but claimed she didn’t know about the issue—this is
despite the fact that tenants have been complaining since 1996.
However, it seems that IWCA pressure may have paid off as the matter has been referred to
the Blackbird Leys Tenants Forum who, along with the police, have agreed to pay
for the street lights to be fixed. As yet, it is not clear when the promised
repairs will take place.
‘The neglect of this issue by the authorities is despicable,’ commented Mr
Craft, ‘this needs to be dealt with immediately. Let’s get the lights
back on and flush the dealers out.’
Leys Independent, Issue 13, May 2002
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