Drug addicts shooting up in stairwell cupboards

By Alex Delaney

DRUG users are still sheltering in cupboards in an Islington housing estate despite the closure of its most notorious block.

Six Acres Estate on Seven Sisters Road remains one of the most dangerous and run-down in the borough after failed attempts by the Finsbury Park Safer Neighbourhood team and local housing agency , Homes for Islington, to resolve the problem.
After previously admitting that addicts used cupboards in stairwells in the condemned Churnfield block of the estate to keep warm and take drugs, PC Simon Hackworth said the problem had now moved to the nearby Fyfield block.
The cupboards are marked ‘Cupboards must remain locked at all times’ but the locks have been removed, allowing access to dangerous mains fuse boxes.
The block, which used to have an intercom system, now has no main entrance door, weakening security.
PC Simon Hackworth said: “There are people that go in there – if we find them we move them on or arrest them, depending on their behaviour and the amount of drugs they have on them.
“But the problem is getting better, and it doesn’t happen every day or every night.”
The remaining Churnfield residents were moved out last week, and the 72 flats were boarded up over the weekend.
But a local resident, who did not wish to be named, said: “Churnfield was the worst building, but Fyfield is nearly as bad – there is no security and addicts have just moved there now instead.
“Homes for Islington workers clean up the needles and nail up the cupboards, but that doesn’t stop them [the addicts] – they don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Homes for Islington are currently undertaking structural work on the estate, but said that security and renovation of public areas would not occur in the immediate future.
Albert Neal, project officer for the estate, said: “Churnfield will be demolished because a structural survey revealed problems with the foundations – Fyfield is staying where it is, although residents are getting new kitchens and windows – those works were more urgent than security.”
William Gibbs, 76, a resident on the estate, said: “There is a big problem with drugs on the whole estate, a lot of residents are too scared to go out of their flats at night-time, because they don’t feel safe.”