North Wales PCC calls on Wrexham Council’s deputy leader for rethink on stopping handouts to homeless

(Updated below!)
North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones has urged the deputy leader of Wrexham Council to think again about his call to stop ‘unfettered handouts’ from the public to those currently living the grounds of a former school.

Last week Wrexham.com reported that Cllr Hugh Jones had issued a strongly worded statement urging the public to stop giving donations to the homeless on the site of the former Groves school site, claiming they are being sold on for drugs.

In his statement, Cllr Jones said: “I have urged, in the strongest possible terms, that people do not make direct donations to those on the Groves site.

“A number of those on the site are not homeless and others have either refused to engage with support agencies or have behaved inappropriately with support workers. We’re getting reports back from those engaging with the people on the site that supplies of food and other donated items are being sold for drugs – this, obviously, only makes things worse.

“As a result, this means they don’t have to get involved with agencies and organisations – the ones that can provide them with long-term support – and it’s actually preventing us from being able to work with them.

“To continue to make donations to the site is irresponsible and counterproductive, and it undermines everything we are doing.”

The camp was created just over a month ago after the site was saved from demolition in August 2016 after a successful appeal to Cadw to get it listed.

Since then there have been claims of disturbances and drug dealing by people living there.

Today Arfon Jones, the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner and former Wrexham councillor, has said he believes Cllr Jones’ plea to stop the donations was a mistake.

The commissioner, a former police inspector, believes the approach would be counterproductive and “exacerbate the problems” rather than improve the situation.

It would be better, said Commissioner Jones, for Tŷ Nos, Wrexham’s night shelter in Holt Road, to be open all day and not just for 12 hours at night.

In July 2017, after spending day on the streets of Wrexham to raise the profile of homeless people in Wrexham, Mr Jones said keeping the shelter open 24/7 would help reduce the risk of anti-social behaviour that’s been upsetting residents and local businesses alike.

A recent visit to Geneva reinforced the commissioner’s view that there was a need for a more enlightened attitude towards drug use which treats addiction as a health rather than a criminal issue.

Mr Jones says the evidence in Switzerland further convinced him that SIFs could be the way forward in North Wales.

Commissioner Jones said: “I sympathise with Cllr Hugh Jones’s attempt to deter compassionate individuals from making donations to individual vulnerable persons in case they sell them to obtain money for drugs.

“The truth is though that he’s missing the point because the nature and power of addiction is such that nothing else matters, their whole energy is focused on getting their substance of choice and they will get it by hook or by crook.

“If they don’t have the resource to buy the drugs they more often than not will resort to stealing to obtain it and selling donations must be preferable to committing crime; possessing drugs is unlikely to merit a prison sentence whilst theft, burglary or robbery certainly does.

“However, a prison sentence rarely turns the life of some who is addicted around. “Blackmailing a problematic drug user rarely achieves a positive outcome or successful recovery

“Having spoken to many problematic drug users – not all of whom are homeless but who have multiple complex needs – they are aware they are causing a nuisance and have no wish to do so and would not do so if they had somewhere to go and I advocated some time ago that Ty Nos should be open 24/7.”

He added: “Acknowledging what Hugh says about individuals refusing to engage, we must recognise that some are not ready to give up and to enter treatment but we must seek to reduce the harm they cause to themselves and society in general by providing Safe Consumption Rooms.

“In the meantime, I would like to thank the local MP, Ian Lucas, for supporting my call to establish daytime facilities for homeless people so that they have somewhere to go rather than being forced to wander the streets. It would certainly be a step in the right direction.”

Last month Wrexham.com reported that Wrexham Council were ‘tolerating the situation’ on the Groves site whilst professionals work to ensure that the complex problems are addressed and alternative provision is made for them.

Today Wrexham.com asked Wrexham Council if there had been any communication with Tŷ Nos about expanding the opening times of the service.

We also asked if any longer term plans been put in place to create a more permanent and accessible space, such as shelters open 24/7, for the individuals in Wrexham and if there is timescale in place to help the people in the camp and find them a new permanent and accessible space before winter.

Cllr Hugh Jones, Lead Member for Communities, Partnerships, Public Protection and Community Safety, said: “The advice that I gave to the public was based on advice that I had received from Wrexham Community Safety Partnership, which includes North Wales Police and that advice still holds good and is supported by all partners.

“The PCC’s ambition for an injecting room is currently not an option and requires changes to be made to the UK law. We have to respond to the current situation and we are doing so in partnership with North Wales Police, The Health Board, Area Planning Board, service providers and other organisation.

“This is not helped by the fact that the PCC has cut funding to some of this work.”

UPDATE: On this final comment by Councillor Hugh Jones, the Police and Crime Commissioner has tweeted saying it is ‘wrong & wrong’ adding we should correct it.

No cuts to any funding @wrexham comment by Hugh is frankly wrong and you should correct. https://t.co/j5pBtZGAf4

— Arfon Jones (@ArfonJ) September 1, 2017

Police & Crime Commissioner says @wrexhamcbc's Deputy Leader @hugh_wre has provided us with duff info over funding cut claim https://t.co/rPA7ZG1EkH

— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) September 1, 2017

Of course will be asking for detail / basis for the claim assuming it does not surface from @hugh_wre to @ArfonJ on here first… !

— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) September 1, 2017