Kilcooley Community Forum: New Decade for Development

OTHER

03 Feb, 2010

Drugs Handed in to Kilcooley KEEPSAFE

Bangor Town Hall, potential new site for Drug Drop Safe facility.

A substantial quantity of illegal drugs (thought to be a mixture of amphetamine, buprenorphine and other substances) were handed into Kilcooley Community Forum (yesterday) by a elderly gentleman who found them close to the new Walled Garden project in Castle Park.

The man said he was walking his dog on the pathway adjacent to the Walled Garden entrance when he noticed some children were acting inquisitively around the bag. He approached them and removed the bag because he thought the contents looked suspicious. He had been aware of the KEEPSAFE Project in Kilcooley through articles he had read in the County Down Spectator and so decided to bring the contents to the KEEPSAFE drop safe facility. However the quantity of drugs in the form of a solid block was too large to deposit in the safe. Staff from Kilcooley Community Forum accepted the delivery and informed PSNI who immediately came and removed the substance.

Jim Rea Chairman of Kilcooley Community Forum said, “Once again it shows the awareness of the general public is heightened by public education and information etc about drugs and drug abuse. This find in a public place only goes to show the owners had hidden it in preparation for distribution in the North Down market. There is a great need for such facilities to be rolled out into the wider community. Having said this however, in light of the Forum’s Community Safety Peace 3 application being rejected as ‘not needed’ because North Down Borough Council’s Community Safety Partnership is funded to do this work, we have it on the agenda for the next Forum Management Committee to consider asking PSNI to remove the facility from Kilcooley and relocate it to Bangor Town Hall.”

<< Return to Kilcooley Community Forum 2010