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Cllr Ian Wilder |
WEST END | NEWS | WESTMINSTER COUNCIL | SOHO | IAN WILDER | DRUG DEALERS | WEST END LICENSING
Councillor speaks out on drink, drugs crisis from his US sickbed
LYING in a hospital bed in the United States, a West End councillor was patched through on a speakerphone system so he could warn colleagues at a council meeting that Soho has become overrun by drunks and drug dealers.
Tory councillor Ian Wilder was 5,000 miles from home in Houston where he is having cancer treatment – but it did not stop him getting his point across at a scrutiny committee meeting at City Hall on Tuesday night.
He said licences were being given to pubs and restaurants “willy-nilly” and Soho was “under siege”, sliding into “total anarchy”.
Cllr Wilder named four establishments which he alleges were given extensions breaking the council’s own rules in the designated “stress area” in the West End.
The council strongly denies breaking its own rules, claiming Soho is the hardest area in the borough in which to extend a licence because of the stress area policy which blocks new licence extentions after 12am.
But Cllr Wilder said: “The council’s policy ?is very strong but it doesn’t seem to be being observed. It’s completely out of control. Soho is being turned into a drinking quarter. It’s already saturated. There is nowhere like it. Not in America, not in Japan, not in China, not in France.”
He added: “Every week I get letters and phone calls from people saying they can’t leave their houses without tripping over drug dealers and drunks. Licensing is to blame for most of these problems. People swarm into the area to take drugs and drink until the early hours. The dealers go where the crowds are. This is going on every night.”
It is estimated there are around 550 licensed premises in the area bordered by Charing Cross Road, Oxford Street, Regent Street and Shaftesbury Avenue. Obstacles such as pimps, prostitutes, crack heads and dealers have to be avoided on a daily basis, according to residents who have contacted the West End Extra.
A couple living in Old Compton Street, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “On walking through Brewer Street at night, there is often a collection of drug dealers openly trading in the doorways opposite one bar. This is added to by beggars, prostitutes, pimps and crackheads. It is becoming increasingly menacing. We don’t feel reassured, we don’t feel safe, but we do feel crime.”
David Bieda, who has lived in Dean Street for 15 years, said: “In all the time I have lived here nothing has been done to improve the lot of residents. People think Soho has always been the same but when I moved here it was quiet. Since 1993, when the stress area was created ,not one licence extension was turned down until 1998 and the numbers of people coming into the area have more than quadrupled. I don’t know why these licenses are being granted but they shouldn’t be.”
A spokesperson for Westminster Council said: “We operate and abide by a robust licensing policy, proved by the fact that out of almost 400 appeals lodged since the Licensing Act 2003, only a handful have been successful in gaining or extending licensces in designated stress areas. These appeals are determined by the magistrates’ court.” |
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