Progress Being Made in Tackling Issues With Discarded Needles in Wrexham

Progress has been made in tackling the issues of unsafely discarded drugs litter in Wrexham – however a joined-approach is needed to continue going forward.

That was the message sent out during a meeting between members of Wrexham Council’s Safeguarding Communities & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee last week.

The meeting was a follow-up to a debate held between councillors on the issue of unsafely discarded needles and drugs litter in Wrexham back in October 2016

Last year’s meeting saw members of the Scrutiny Committee discuss at the length the findings of the ‘Unsafely Discarded Needles Task and Finish Group’, which was established to examine the growing problems with drug usage and the impact it was having on local communities.

During October’s meeting members made recommendations to key partners in order to facilitate actions to tackle and respond to drug litter in the future.

Recommendations made by the committee included lobbying the Welsh Government on the need for strategies to address the adverse consequences of needle and syringe programmes and for partners to work together to identify hotspots and provide a single point of responsibility, co-ordination and accountability for dealing with drug litter.

Last week members of the committee met to discuss what progress had been made since last year – with representatives from Wrexham Council and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board present to provide updates.

The meeting began with councillors posing questions to Lead Member for Communities and Partnerships, Cllr Hugh Jones and Chair of Partnership Delivery Board 3 Lee Robinson on lobbying the Welsh Government for substance misuse strategies.

Addressing the committee Cllr Hugh Jones noted that the findings of last year’s report had been presented to members of the ‘North Wales Safer Communities Board’ and had received ‘appreciation across the representatives of various organisations in North Wales for the work that had been done’.

He said: “The first point is clearly this issue was not an issue that was unique to Wrexham.

“The second point is they felt they needed to take the report away and consider is in each of their local authorities to see how the recommendations in the report would impact on their own specific local authority.

“Therefore there will be a further report to the next North Wales Safer Communities Board.”

Cllr Carole O’Toole, who was involved with the Unsafely Discarded Needles Task and Finish Group, pointed out that she had ‘mixed feelings’ when she read the report in front of the committee.

“Our focus was on discarded needles and the affect they have on communities, that is why we gave significant emphasis on the fact we felt in so many government policy statements and strategies that this impact wasn’t considered enough,” said Cllr O’Toole.

“As Cllr Hugh Jones said earlier there is a need for all agencies from Welsh Government down who are involved in this work to understand the affect policy and strategy decisions made at Welsh Government levels and other levels have. The impact discarded needles have on communities must be taken into account seriously.

“I wonder if Cllr Jones can give us any more reassurance on what is likely to happen going forward. The enormity of the problem has to be recognised. I am looking for more reassurance than what is being provided.”

Cllr Jones explained that partnership work with a number of relevant agencies in Wrexham was taking place to deal with the issues of discarded needles and that progress is being made in tackling the problem.

Comments were also made on the timescale between the reports and if enough was being done to tackle the issue.

Cllr Colin Powell said: “Progress is being made but I am concerned that it has taken nearly five months for the recommendation to get on the North Wales Safer Communities Board.

“To me if wanting to develop a timely response to an issue, its too long.”

Cllr Phil Wynn said: “What I wanted to read is that discussion at a high level had taken place and the recognition of dispensing needles. It is no longer a needle exchange and a lot aren’t going be collected in safely.

“We need a timeline from getting the response to their commitment to finding a solution.”

Similar sentiment was echoed by Cllr I David. Bithell, who questioned what reasons the Welsh Assembly had given for not carrying out and implementing a needle exchange programme.

Cllr Jones stated that it was the policy of the Welsh Health Service as it is believed to be the ‘most effective way of preventing the further spread of diseases’.

Referencing the timescale, Cllr Jones said: “There is a significant amount of work taking place with the Area Planning Board and service providers – it is not that nothing has been done. As a result of this report a lot has been done.

“New processes are in place and are being trialled. It is not a problem we are solve overnight.

“A lot of work has been and is taking place. We are meeting on almost a weekly basis to review this issue. You can be assured the time has not been wasted.”

However concerns were raised on Wrexham Council’s approach to dealing with the issue, with Cllr Rodney Skelland questionning if the local authority’s ‘benevolent approach’ is attracting addicts to Wrexham.

He said: “Prior to this report coming out I put a selection form together with a few questions – some include to evaluate if the Council are contributing by taking a lenient approach to addicts.

“We contribute to some of the agencies around the town, is that something we should be looking at – are we adding to the problem?”

Cllr Skelland also questioned how progress on the issues could be monitored if data on the number of drug addicts and needles being disposed of unsafely was not being collected.

However Cllr Jones hit back at the criticism, stating that Wrexham Council has an ‘effective approach with dealing with the whole problem with substance abuse’ and referenced the introduction of the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) last year.

He continued: “The PSPO underpins the action we are taking in law. If the service users carry out antisocial behaviour, if they are not engaging with the recommended pathways, then they will be subject to the full force of the law. This is evidenced by the success happening with the town centre PSPO.

“I would argue we are not taking a benevolent approach and we are taking one which we believe is the most effective way of dealing with the problem.”

Cllr Jones added: “There are two ways, if you resort to the law you are sticking a plaster on the problem. The law itself isn’t necessarily effective in dealing with substance misuse.

“The way to tackle the issue is in which people will reform and recover. I will say we are working with agencies which are mainly funded by the Welsh Government. By working with them we are developing a policy which is effective and starting to reduce the problem in Wrexham.

“Far from being benevolent it is an effective approach.”

Explaining the lack of data in the report, Cllr O’Toole said: “Can I take Cllr Skelland back to when we started this as a Task and Finish Group. We spent the first few sessions trying to establish data, but very quickly came to the conclusion that of the nature of the problems we are dealing with, hard and fast data was hard to come across.

“We are dealing with folk who lead chaotic lives. We can’t open sharps bins to count needles. There is a lot of knowledge – lead members have a lot of knowledge and members who are sat here have huge amounts of data and knowledge which fed into the Task and Finish Group and we now have this report.”

“This is a work in progress and I am proud of what we have achieved in terms of the two reports. I think they are groundbreaking, there is a long way to go and lots of data we may not have at our fingertips. However we have got to be aware of where we are and what we can achieve.

“To spend time now talking about monitoring and date is counter productive. There may be a time in the future to revisit some of the questions. My only suggestion to you is to reread the Task and Finish Group’s and today’s report.”

Questions were also asked about BCUHB’s involvement, with local member for the Grosvenor ward, Cllr Steve Wilson saying: “I think the health board have to take more responsibility for their policies. There has to be some tangible commitment to clear up the mess that the Council aren’t making.

A representative from BCUHB stated that the ‘needle syringe programme is a Welsh Government and UK initiative’ and that the health board is ‘committed to supporting partners in terms of unintended consequences’.

The meeting then moved onto providing updates on the removal of discarded needles and drugs litter, with Lee Robinson stating that there are three parties involved with the the collection and cleaning up of needles.

He said: “We are working together to tackle the issue and have trained Street Scene workers. It is not always obvious where to look or what to look for. There are another five collections taking place between now and the end of March.

“The final point I wanted to make is this all sits within the wider context of the town centre action plan. In terms of understanding where hotspots are, there are individuals involved and we collate information on a weekly basis to understand where we need to focus our attention and who we need to do it with.

Reference was also made to the bespoke needle hotline which had been introduced to councillors. A total of eleven calls had been made with regards to discarded needles since it became operational last month.

It is hoped that the hotline will be rolled out to the public in the near future.