£600,000 FOR NORMANTON 2

Josephine Rooney is a pleasant, respectable, retired lady, one of the few old faces left behind in a once-genteel street that is now a squalid and dangerous drugs ghetto. A former airline bookings supervisor, Josephine is the driving force behind a residents' group demanding action to reclaim the area. Astonishingly, she is also an angel of mercy who does her best to feed and comfort the hopeless heroin and crack addicts who knock on her door for help. Nowadays Hartington Street in Normanton is known as Smack Alley, but it was still prosperous and middle-class when Josephine moved here 20 years ago, a parade of grand three storey terraces just a few blocks away from the centre of Derby.

Then a "halfway house" hostel for homeless people and addicts on rehab opened at one end of the street, and one by one the old residents moved out. In 10 years, the street's decline has been so rapid that out of 50 houses, only eight are now owner-occupied, the rest have been bought up by absent landlords and converted into cramped bedsits and flats. The last family left more than a year ago. "It became too dangerous, as simple as that," said Josephine. "We were surrounded by addicts looking for drugs, and prostitutes looking to earn money for drugs, and dealers peddling drugs."

She added, "There would be syringes out the front every morning. I would walk the kids to school, telling them 'Don't stare at anyone, just keep going straight ahead', and they were clinging on to me in fright. There was just no hope it was ever going to get better. Hartington Street has been turned into a dumping ground. You want to find the people that society tries to forget? Look around the back of this street... the council, the police, politicians... all seem content to leave things as they are. They're just happy to see the drug problem contained on our doorsteps." But even though she leads the campaign against them, Josephine feels sorry for the addicts washed up here.

She used to watch them foraging in bins for food and couldn't bear to see their plight. Now she feeds them herself... handing out free sandwiches every day to junkies who knock at her door. No one, it seems, is turned away. Josephine spends £6 a day on loaves from her pension and savings. In the last two years there have been four drug deaths in Hartington Street. "They tell me I'm crazy, to be supporting the very people we're trying to get out," says Josephine. "But they're victims like us. You can't help but feel sorry for them. I don't want them here, but as long as they are here then they need help, and when you give help, then you can't judge them."

In one small corner behind No 40, I counted at least 30 bloodied, discarded syringes. In another there were 40 more, that's 70 a day. Some were stuck into cavities in the brick wall, a thoughtful act by a junkie to keep them away from small children. Every few days, the city council's Needle Squad take away sackfuls of 300 or 400 at a time. The local action group, or what's left of it, have lobbied politicians, councillors, officials, you name it, but there are no promises, no action.

Tony Blair's office passed a letter to John Prescott's, who never replied. From Tory leader Michael Howard, only silence. Local MP Margaret Beckett sent a bland note about ASBOs. The best they have heard is a vague suggestion from the city council, that it might try to halt any more houses being converted into flats. "Too late, too late," says Josephine. "We're already on the way to destruction. We have been left to fend for ourselves, normal rules of law and order don't exist here." (Source: Sunday Mirror)

Drug abuse and prostitution in Normanton is being highlighted on television. The BBC1 series, Britain's Streets of Vice, features the complaints of residents in Hartington Street. They claim more than 200 used syringes are found lying on that street alone in just one day. Locals hope the media coverage will encourage people to improve the area in which they live.

Councillor Shiraz Khan said the city council is taking steps to improve things. "Some of the houses are being renovated through improvement grants," he said. "I for one would like to see more control on the planning permissions given to houses of multiple occupancy and have more family-orientated accommodation."

He added, "Unfortunately it's a re-occurring problem. We came and cleaned up the syringes and the graffiti and the bulky items but next week they're there again. This street was once of very good character and it's a shame to see it in this state." One resident, Josephine Rooney said, "We're fobbed off by the council they won't come and look, we have invited them to come to the street and they've refused to do so."

She said of the drug addicts, "They work as prostitutes to feed their drug habits, some of them are as young as 16. There's one prostitute who does business for £5, she has to because of her drug habit." Another resident who has lived in the area for 73 years said one house had been empty for 10 years.

More than 1,000 discarded syringes used by drug addicts were left in just three days in and around Hartington Street where addicts have built their own makeshift shelter. A city council clean-up team were already making daily visits to the area and removing around 200 syringes at a time but the haul has prompted calls for more to be done to tackle the problem.

Gerv McGrath, East Midlands area manager for drug charity Addaction, said, "Finding up to 200 needles a day alone is disturbing. I'm very surprised that a figure of more than 1,000 has accumulated in just a few days." Fareed Hussain, councillor for the Arboretum ward, said, "We know drug taking is a huge problem in the street and that the council is trying to help clean-up the area, but it is not something that can be done overnight." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Jun/06)

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