Tit For Tat As NPS Debate Gets Re-Run In Town Centre Forum Meeting

Wrexham town centre’s issues with substance misuse were once again under the spotlight yesterday, with another row breaking out over how best to handle the situation.

Yesterday saw the bi-monthly meeting of the Town Centre Forum. However the start of the meeting was once again dominated by the subject of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) and its knock on effects for businesses and visitors to the town centre.

Formerly known as legal-highs, issues surrounding substances such as ‘spice’ and ‘mamba’ have been a frequent topic of debate locally for several months in and around Wrexham. All this came to a head in March 2017 after a collection of pictures of Lord Street and Wrexham’s Bus Station dating from 2015 onwards were published online.

Since then there have been frequent complaints from businesses and visitors to the town centre – along with frustrated calls for something simply ‘to be done’.

Speaking at this yesterday’s meeting Deputy Leader of the Council and Lead Member for Communities, Partnerships Public Protection and Community Safety, Cllr Hugh Jones, said the issues surrounding ‘legal-highs’ are presenting are not exclusive to Wrexham.

He said: “We had an extensive discussion at the last meeting. We now have a fully effective partnership group consisting of Wrexham Council, North Wales Police, service providers, faith groups and representatives from service users.

“We meet on a weekly basis on progress and on issues that arise. Any issues of hotspots are dealt with on a weekly basis. on a daily basis there are community safety officers monitoring any reports coming in.

“Part of the problem is exasperated in the presence of so-called legal highs. The problems they are causing is not just in Wrexham, the legislation is difficult. They’re not illegal, but the dealing is. We are trying to tackle that as effectively as we can.”

Cllr Jones also referenced the engagement programme recently established – which takes the approach of ‘everyone in a room, including service users’. So far two events have been held, the first in Trinity Church and a second in the Salvation Army in Rhosddu in May (you can read our two unique reports and details on those here and here)

He added: “These substance users are human beings. They are somebody’s son and daughter. They are related to someone and we have to treat them with dignity and respect.

“There is increased involvement in terms of tackling the problem.

“In the Bus Station we have doubled the security staff and we have six weekly meetings with stakeholders. We are also looking at options in improving the environment and the opening hours and security have undergone training – there is lots going on.”

On the subject of the Bus Station, Leader of the Labour Group, Cllr Dana Davies raised concerns about students travelling to college via public transport.

She said: “I think we have a huge safeguarding issue. As of September the post-16 decision to withdraw transport is going to be sending children through King Street when there is an issue with King Street.

“From safeguarding, what are we doing to mitigate these risks? Are we look at transporting the children from A-C?”

Cllr Jones replied citing local education efforts in place to ensure young people were being educated to the dangers of NPS and was ‘fully aware of the risks’ and considered the local authority being ‘on top of it’.

However Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Wrexham, Ian Lucas offered a scathing response to Cllr Jones’s comments, stating that several businesses are being affected on a daily basis by people taking and being affected by substance abuse outside their premises.

Mr Lucas said: “Businesses on Lord Street are concerned about the continuing issues of individuals taking spice and other drugs and are concerned of the immediate impact on their business.

“I accept it is a long-term issue and i know the police and members of staff in Wrexham Council are working hard to take steps to remedy the issue. However I think it is an urgent problem affecting town centre businesses and individuals are complaining almost on a daily basis.”

He added: “The innovations with the open days and encouraging individuals to seek support as good, but we need somewhere for them to go everyday.

“The issues is affecting businesses everyday. It should be a top priority for the Local Authority for individuals to be taken away from the town centre and be available for them to seek support.

“This needs to be done now. Businesses are very concerned of impact it’s having on them on a daily basis.”

Mr Lucas also described the legislation surrounding NPS ‘is a mess’ and commented on the length of time it takes for police to test the various substances before they can take legislative action, and the cost of such a process.

Cllr Jones acknowledged that the council were aware of the issues on Lord Street and that the camera system in the area was being upgraded.

He continued: “You will know having a room and taking people there, what powers have we got to do that? We haven’t got any. What we are doing by using supporters and service providers, we are trying to move these people into places where they can get support and recovery.

“There are 47 individuals who are the main cause on Wrexham. We are focusing on these people. In terms of moving them on, we can’t move them.”

This was challenged by Mr Lucas, who pointed out that such issues do not happen all over town, with Eagles Meadow having full-time security, pointing out that Wrexham Council employs a single person to that role for the town centre.

Owner of King Street Coffee, Andy Gallanders, who has previously pushed various agencies into tackling the antisocial behaviour issues at the bus station, angrily interjected pointing out that 47 people’s behaviour could be affecting 10,000 people daily – people who visit or work in town.

Cllr Bill Baldwin, who has recently been appointed to the Executive Board as Lead Member for  Children’s Services angrily asked Andy “What would you do?”.  That conversation ended with that comment, with no suggestions offered by the frustrated business owner, or the new lead member.

Owner of La Baguette, Matt McHale added that although the issues are ‘damaging’, they are being discussed over and over again. Perhaps a nod to the forthcoming election, he also pointed out that it was ‘nice to see people concerned at a certain time’ – with the exchange mainly being between Labour’s parliamentary candidate Ian Lucas and Conservative Cllr Jones.

Chairman Nigel Lewis pointed out that communication from the various agencies needed improving to help keep the public informed with the progress being made locally. Mr Lewis gave the example that he had heard frustrations that people can be fined £75 for dropping a piece of litter, however NPS users have ‘nothing’, calling it an ‘imbalance’.

He said: “I think there is work being done. But what general public need is some communication in terms of positive things being done. The public aren’t being told and communication needs to improve.”

“What percentage of those people are actively engaged? Are more people coming in and filling the place of those who are dealt with.”

Cllr Jones said: “Lets take someone on Lord Street. I fully understand the impact it has on businesses and the daily lives of people. Lets just take an example of one or two standing in Lord Street who are presenting as ‘off their head’ – they have taken NPS substances and are ‘zombie like’. They are not threatening and not doing a criminal offence.

“The presence is off-putting, but as legislation stands no one has any power. No one has the power to move a person on as they are not breaking the law.

“If we take them to a room, who is going to take them and what powers are they going to use?”

Commenting on communication issues, Cllr Jones added that he hopes the press can be encouraged to ‘publish good news’.

In the spirit of publishing good news and highlighting work being carried out in the town centre, we would like to briefly point out that Wrexham.com were the only local media present at both action days – with two separate articles of over 1500 words each being published after each event, plus hosting a webchat that was dominated with ASB issues with the local Inspector and Cllr Hugh Jones (you can re-read that here).

Wrexham.com have also covered several council meetings and public meetings to document the work being carried out to tackle the issue – rather than run repeated articles branding those on such substances as ‘zombies’.

At the previous meeting a bold statement regarding ‘fabricated’ images of substance misuse was levelled at media with fake blood in one image being given as an example. When Wrexham.com invited firm challenge to such fakery the issue was batted back to the Council’s Press Office where we were told it had being countered. The only defence we have seen is this press release, which states images were old rather than ‘fabricated’.

The spat between Cllr Jones and Mr Lucas continued after the meeting, with the Deputy Leader sending an unsolicited statement to us, countering claims made in the recent live streamed hustings we hosted between Wrexham candidates, with further comment based off yesterday morning’s meeting.

The statement is copied in full below:

“The claim by Mr Lucas that the Council will not work with him on Town Centre issues for political reasons is a reversal of the truth:-

Ian Lucas constantly attacks Wrexham Council for party political gain

Ian Lucas refuses to accept the close partnership working with North Wales Police

Ian Lucas refuses to recognise the significant progress being led by Wrexham Council in a multi agency partnership.

The progress made in Rhosddu follows a meeting arranged by Andrew Atkinson, Cllr I David Bithell and former Cllr Steve Wilson.

Prior to the Rhosddu PSPO Mrs Lucas represented her husband at a Town Centre Forum meeting where I presented the proposal for the PSPO. She advised me that ‘Ian will be interested and be in touch’. Ian never got in touch.

When the Rhosddu task group was set up both the MP and the AM were invited and at the first meeting both sent representatives who made a positive contribution.

At the second meeting Ian Lucas turned up and berated dedicated Council staff and yet again launched an attack on Wrexham Council.

The Leader of the Council has invited Mr Lucas to meetings and he has not accepted those invitations.

The suggestion by Mr Lucas that we physically remove people from the Town Centre and ‘take them to a room somewhere outside the Town’ is crass, even if we wanted to neither the Police or our staff have the powers to do this. Instead we are working with partners to get them into recovery. At the end of the day the people concerned are human beings, someone’s son or daughter, many have become involved in substance misuse through a complex range of issues including mental health.

We are focussing on these issues. Equally where the law is being broken enforcement will take place. By Mr Lucas own admission, in the case of so called ‘Legal Highs’ the national law is complicated and complex and in many cases the Local Authority and Police are powerless. Notwithstanding his negativity a great deal of positive partnership working is taking place, led by Wrexham CBC.

These issues are complex and take time to resolve but we will resolve them. By his actions and his manner he rejects the opportunity for constructive partnership working. The door is open to him to engage in a positive and constructive partnership.”

We invited Mr Lucas to respond, he said “I was at today’s meeting to work with the council and Hugh could have spoken directly to me if he had not left early.

“Wrexham people are very concerned about this situation. I went today to speak up for them.”

Top Pic: The Memorial Hall at 8:20am as we headed in so we could write this 2000 words for you, featuring bonus quirky angle.