Local beaches smell of cannabis says councillor

That's according to Cllr Vikki Slade, who has questioned why this happens and yet little seemed to be done about it.

She has warned dealers are also likely to be involved in other criminal activities and leading drug-users into other offences.

“Drug taking in BCP now seems to be endemic – you can’t go to the beach without being hit by the reek of cannabis…it hits you and it’s the same when you go to the town centre.

Bournemouth beach this summer

“Every time I’ve challenged why we aren’t doing anything about it I’m told it’s so endemic, what are you supposed to do?”

"The people who are dealing it are probably also dealing other things which are more dangerous,” she said, pointing to the links between drug use and other offences including violent behaviour, shoplifting and sex crimes.

“We have either got to regularise it, or deal with it, this current line doesn’t seem to be working for anybody and is potentially putting another generation of kids into harm’s way by following their parents in carrying on taking illegal drugs.”

The same ‘see nothing’ attitude to crime was raised by Cllr Stribley at Monday’s overview and scrutiny committee meeting.

Bournemouth beach. Picture by Stephen Bath

She said that a play area in her ward, once one of the best in the area, was slowly being dismantled and vandalised by gangs of youths – yet nobody claimed to ever see anything happen and nobody seemed prepared to tackle the problems.

She said the council may have contributed to the destruction by fencing off the whole area, rather than just one item of vandalised equipment while repairs were awaited, which mean that youths now congregated there because nobody else was using the area.

She claimed the play area had been closed for months during which time the damage had become worse.

“I can’t understand why there is no CCTV there… nobody ever sees anything but the damage increases,” she said.

Both issues were raised during a debate about the area’s Community Safety Partnership which will go out for public consultation next year more than two years after being created.

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Cllr Slade said more needed to be done with the partnership to measure successes and claimed the focus of the work she had seen so far seemed too narrow and orientated towards town-centres with little about fraud, cyber-crime or burglary, although she was told there were background documents relating to these areas and strategies being developed to tackle them.

Service director for communities, Kelly Ansell, told the meeting that the partnership had already achieved a number of successes and was currently prioritising work on domestic abuse, sexual violence, public place and alcohol-related violence, threats to children and young people and anti-social behaviour.

She said that a community consultation was planned for the New Year with the development of a communications strategy for the partnership going hand in hand with that to make the publis more aware of the group’s work.

“We are committed to taking a public health approach – to tackle not just the symptoms, but the causes…will work hand in hand with the council, the police and other partners to ensure delivery in a co-ordinated way,” she said.