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Community leaders in Leeds have give a strong welcome to injunctions banning 12 drug users from the Little London area.
The twelve – eight men and four women - had been causing considerable alarm in the tightly-knit inner Leeds community as a result of their open drug use in public areas.
This included injecting drugs outside Little London Primary School and Little London’s Children’s Centre.
The twelve were shown in court to have a history of drug abuse and visiting Little London from outside the area. They have been identified in the area several times by PCSOs, police and local residents to be the perpetrators of such behaviour.
Witness statements told how they contributed to an increase in used drug paraphernalia found in the area, the easy availability of drugs, especially near the school, and an increasing air of intimidation from the activities of dealers and users in the area.
Jill Wood, head teacher at Little London Primary School said: “It’s absolutely fantastic that these people will now be prevented from coming into Little London.
“We will all be more confident about walking the streets, day or night, and parents will feel a lot happier about picking up their children from school without fear of intimidation.
“Little London is a strong community, and these injunctions show what we can achieve when we stand together.”
Councillor Les Carter, executive board member responsible for community safety and chair of Safer Leeds said: “I was shocked when I heard about the behaviour of these people. It is quite unacceptable at any time, but showing such disregard for very young children beggars belief.
“The council and police will always take tough action to protect our communities, and our firm line has already led to a 32% reduction in crime in Leeds in the last three years.
“I can assure people in Little London that we will provide them with the support they need to keep the community in the hands of the decent law abiding majority.”
Inspector Fran Naughton, of the North West Inner Neighbourhood Policing Team, added: “Drug dealing and drug-related crime and anti-social behaviour are the main issues affecting people’s quality of life in Little London which is why tackling these issues have been, and continue to be, our top priority.
“We have had a number of recent successes arresting suspected dealers, in many cases as a direct result of information provided by the local community, but there is never any room for complacency and we urge people to keep that information coming.
“The granting of the injunctions against these problem drug users should help to improve the situation even further. For too long their drug-fuelled behaviour has impacted on the lives of local people and now we have orders in place to keep them out of the area.
“We will continue working in partnership with the local authority and other agencies to target the minority whose actions have a negative effect on the community.”
The injunctions were obtained under general powers to prohibit public nuisance for the benefit of inhabitants of Leeds. If any of the 12 breach them, they risk arrest and imprisonment.
The granting of the injunctions is part of an ongoing two-pronged approach to tackling drug dealing and drugs-related crime and anti-social behaviour in the Little London and Woodhouse areas, with the police, council and partner agencies targeting both users and dealers.
Recent successes have seen a 16-year-old youth from Farnley charged with possessing cocaine with intent to supply after he was arrested in Little London.
Two 18-year-old men, one from Woodhouse and one from Chapeltown, have been charged with possessing cocaine with intent to supply after they were searched and arrested in Oatland Close, Little London.
On Friday last week a 21-year-old man, from Harehills, was arrested in Carlton View, Little London, and a quantity of what is believed to be cocaine was recovered. He has been recalled to prison.
Neighbourhood policing officers also uncovered a 300-plant cannabis factory in a house in Oatland Place, Little London, a week ago.
The find came as a result of information from the local community and was confirmed by officers using a handheld thermal imaging camera.
The impact this work is having is clearly illustrated by a significant drop in the number of calls police have received from members of the public reporting drug dealing or drug-related issues on the streets.
Between January 1 and July 10 this year police received 142 calls reporting drugs issues in the Little London and Woodhouse areas. But in the last three months (July 11 to October 2) this has dropped to just 18 calls.
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