The discovery last weekend of used hypodermic needles in a wooded section of Pilrig Park has shocked locals.
Many parks close to city centres suffer from problems like this. However, Friends of Pilrig Park (FPP) discovered the drug paraphernalia during a ‘Woodland Clearance’ on 15 February despite Council assurances that Environmental Wardens had checked the area for this potential problem only two days before.
FPP found 16 needles on Saturday, and a local resident who returned on Monday ‘easily’ recovered another 12. She felt so strongly about what she had found that she presented the evidence to Leith Central Community Council that evening.
Volunteers estimate that over half the needles discovered had been lying beneath leaf litter and undergrowth for over a year. This therefore points not to a one-off oversight by CEC staff last week, but to a more long-standing and systemic failure to maintain the area properly.
The discovery is a kick in the teeth for all those who have made progress improving the park recently, and improving also its reputation as a family-friendly space.
Its woodiness is what makes it attractive and biodiverse. But, as a community policeman attending the LCCC meeting pointed out, its woodiness is also what affords drug users the privacy they prefer to shoot up.
Deidre Brock – Ward 12 councillor and ‘Cleaner Leith Tsar’ – has spoken to community safety staff and will see that resources are put towards deep cleansing. Officials are, she says, taking the problem very seriously indeed.
The issue will also be raised at the upcoming Clean Leith Community Forum on 25 February and the Leith Neighbourhood Partnership's next Feeling Safe Community Forum on 4 March.
Photos courtesy of: Bruce Ryan (top and bottom), Ella Taylor-Smith.(middle).