Council slammed for the amount of time it took to clear drug paraphernalia from school run footpath - The Bromsgrove Standard

Council slammed for the amount of time it took to clear drug paraphernalia from school run footpath

Bromsgrove Editorial 9th Sep, 2015 Updated: 17th Oct, 2016   0

BROMSGROVE District Council has come under fire for the amount of time it took to clear up drug paraphernalia from a footpath in Charford which is well-used on the school runs.

The Standard was contacted by Coun Sean Shannon who was shocked to hear about the situation from mums and dads who noticed it whilst taking their children to school on Tuesday (September 8). Among the items were crack foils, needles, packaging, and nitrous-oxide canisters.

He immediately reported it to Bromsgrove District Council and was told it would be cleared away as soon as possible. But that was not done.

Coun Shannon said: “I feel street cleaning in Bromsgrove in general has gone down hill but this scenario is a lot more serious.




“While I was there checking it out, parents with new starters at the school were walking down the alleyway and because there are no cars or traffic danger, the youngsters were running ahead.

“These items are quite shiny and could be attractive for children to pick up if they did not understand what they were or the potential dangers they could put themselves in.”


Coun Shannon was then contacted the following morning by parents asking why nothing had been done and why the drug paraphernalia was still there.

“I could not believe that the drug items were still all over the path when they took their children to school on Wedenesday morning.”

Because of the serious nature of the incident, Coun Shannon felt the area could not be left as it was so used tape to block off the footpath.

He also contacted the schools about the issue so the parents could be notified.

Bromsgrove District Council’s head of environmental services Guy Revans said: “Litter left in this alley, including drug paraphernalia, should have been dealt with last night as an urgent out-of-hours call, rather than done this morning.

“We apologise for the mix-up, and we’ve reinforced our processes for dealing with this type of litter.”

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