1,100 DRUG NEEDLES FOUND IN COUNCIL TAX REBEL'S STREET

A pensioner who is facing jail because she refuses to pay her council
tax until her local authority cleans up her street said she felt
"completely vindicated" yesterday after 1,100 used needles were found
there in one weekend.

Josephine Rooney, 69, said that despite years of drug addicts hanging
around Hartington Street in Derby even she was shocked at the quantity.

She said: "It just goes to show I'm not talking rubbish. For six
years I have campaigned for the council to clean this area up and I
think the number of needles found speaks for itself.

"The council are doing nothing and while I don't enjoy withholding my
tax, I feel completely vindicated when you see piles upon piles of
used needles."

The haul was collected on Monday morning, only three days after the
council cleaned the same area.

Miss Rooney, who has lived in the street for 20 years, began
withholding the tax two years ago and now owes about UKP850. She has
been paying the tax into a separate account and said she will hand it
to the council once it clears the area of drug abusers.

Last week's deadline to pay passed and she expects to hear by the end
of the month when her next court appearance will be.

Hartington Street used to be one of the city's most desirable
residences, lined with three-storey Victorian houses. These days they
are all split up into flats and bedsits, some of which are boarded
up, and the street is a favourite place for drug abusers, most of
whom congregate in an alleyway off the street, dubbed "smack alley".

A normal weekend clean-up would net between 200 and 300 needles but
Miss Rooney said the situation was worsening. She added: "I commend
the efforts of the hit squads and other community patrol groups
because they've got to go around picking these needles up and it's a
dangerous job.

"But everyone around here is supporting me and episodes like this
just back us up.

"I've written letters to Tony Blair, to Margaret Beckett, our MP, and
the council, but have got absolutely nowhere and clearly nothing is
being done."

Gerv McGrath, East Midlands area manager for the drug charity
Addaction, said: "Finding up to 200 needles a day is disturbing. I'm
very surprised that 1,000 have accumulated in just a few days.

"Hartington Street is an area where people are in short-term
accommodation and there is a cohort of users around there."

Fareed Hussain, councillor for the Arboretum ward, which covers the
area, said: "It's incredibly shocking. 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."