Cllr John Woolf

A NEW community safety scheme has been launched to meet residents’ pleas for action to tackle escalating drug use and dealing on their streets.

Almost 1,000 people have signed a petition calling for Islington Council and MP Jeremy Corbyn to stop a “drugs crisis” in Finsbury Park and Tollington wards. There have been reports of open dealing, injecting and drug-smoking, including in front of schools and at all times of day and night.

The council said its Safer Spaces Tollington scheme would help the community feel safer. Islington’s community safety chief Councillor John Woolf said: “I’m really sorry that the residents felt they had to get to the point of the petition. No one should be living with crime, anti-social behaviour or drugs on their street.

“I lived above a drug dealer on a council estate growing up, I personally know what it’s like, and it’s awful.”

Safer Spaces Tollington is an online platform where people will find out how the council is tackling anti-social behaviour in their area. It will be made easier for residents to report incidents via a map of the area.

More than 150 incidents have been logged since the project launched last week. When reports increase, an area becomes a hotspot where more policing is deployed.

Cllr Woolf added: “Sometimes I think we’ve struggled to effectively communicate just how much is being done, and yet we’re never complacent.”

He said that as well as close collaboration with the police, the council is taking a public health approach to reducing drug use.

“The amount of extra resources that has gone into supporting those vulnerable to both criminality but also substance misuse, has increased,” he said.

“We’ve got funding for more outreach workers.”

The founder of the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, Jez Bond, spoke to the Tribune about the increasing number of drug users in the theatre’s doorways and fire escapes.

“There are sometimes syringes lying around and that can be very worrying in terms of health and safety,” said Mr Bond.

“It’s really discouraging that not more can be done about it in terms of support for these communities.”

The theatre’s general manager, Tom Bailey, said that there has been an increase in police patrols, but from a previously “non-existent” baseline.