News
'Our nightmare next to alcoholics and addicts'
Wednesday, 07 January 2009
Mary Harman is lobbying to to stop the extension of a drugs detox centre
RESIDENTS are campaigning to stop a drugs detox unit being extended just metres from their homes.
The charity Equinox, which runs a residential rehabilitation centre in Brook Drive, Kennington, intends to extend the premises by building a two-floor building at the back of the site as well as bolting on a lift shaft.
The application was put on hold at a planning committee earlier on December 17 after councillors told the charity to produce a management plan before a decision could be made.
Neighbours, who feel intimidated by the alcoholics and heroin users of the centre, successfully opposed a previous planning application for the extension in May.
They fear the second application looks set to be agreed once the management plan is produced.
Mary Harman, 63, who lives in nearby Castlebrook Close, said: “The centre shouldn’t be there in the first place.
“If the planning application is approved things will get worse, with more people bringing their problems and more noise.
“We don’t know whether the people there are convicted criminals or just plain undesirables, but they sit in the car park playing loud music and having the most foul-mouthed conversations.
“We’ve had intruders in the background.
"Empty bottles and cans are continually thrown into our gardens.”
Sandwiched between a cluster of residential streets, the centre houses 27 bed spaces offering 10-day detox treatments.
The remainder of the building is hostel accommodation.
The proposed extension would make room for 15 additional detox rooms.
Noreen O’Gallagher, 45, who has been fronting the campaign against the development since February, believes the development would be funded by the Department of Health, costing taxpayers £371,000.
She said: “It’s a nightmare living with the centre.”
She described it as a “shambles”, criticising the management, which she claimed had not tried to deal with the local problem.
Ms O’Gallager said: “The extension will exacerbate the problems we already have.”
Other complaints include claims the centre’s car park is being used night and day by patients smoking, urinating and arguing.
Residents say they have also had used syringes thrown into their gardens.
Ms O’Gallagher told how a neighbour’s 14-year-old daughter was handed £20 by a patient and asked to buy a bottle of vodka.
She said she also saw a woman sleeping rough outside the building, who claimed she had been evicted from the centre but was waiting for her benefit cheque to arrive there.
She added: “Equinox have told us that they want to double the detox beds to increase their income.
"It’s a money-making scheme. I’m all for detox beds but not in a residential area.”
A spokeswoman from Equinox Drink Drug Crisis Centre said the charity had put in the planning application to improve accessibility and was not in a position to comment on the running of the centre.
Email: nadia.gilani@slp.co.uk
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