Drugs are being sold openly on Keswick’s streets and the police need to get a grip of the problem, a town councillor has said.
Speaking at the February meeting of the town council, Cllr Paul Titley said that he had been approached by a resident on the “back streets” who had told him she had seen drug dealing taking place in front of her home.
Cllr Titley said the woman had reported the incident to police who had treated it “more of an irritation than action to be taken”.
Speaking to The Keswick Reminder following the meeting, Cllr Titley said he was hoping the police would pick up on the issue but had once again not sent a representative to the meeting. He would now be raising the matter with the inspector responsible for Keswick.
He said that Keswick once had an inspector, two sergeants, 12 constables and a police clerk working out of Bank Street.
“Now we’ve got a Post-it note service with ‘back soon’ written on it,” he said, adding: “Clearly the absence of a police presence that means business is not helping residents of this town to deal with a drug problem.”
He added that Keswick has had “more inspectors than we have had Chancellors of the Exchequer” in recent years and said this was not helping the policing situation in the town.
“We seem to cycle through them quite rapidly,” he said. “You have got to learn your patch.”
The meeting was told that police have promised there would be a presence at the Christmas lights switch-on this year after complaints there was not one last November.
Meanwhile, police announced earlier this week that drugs worth £730,000 along with £500,000 in suspected illegally-held cash have been seized by Cumbrian officers in the first six weeks of 2023.
The work all comes under the banner of Operation Alliance, which is the constabulary’s ongoing response to serious and organised crime, and builds on the £4 million worth of drugs that were taken off the streets last year.
Detective Inspector Duncan Brooker said: “These figures are just a snapshot of the activity undertaken since the New Year, with a significant amount of drugs taken off the streets and cash seized.”
