Pubdate: Thu, 07 Aug 2014
Source: Evening Herald (Ireland)
Copyright: 2014 Evening Herald
Contact:  http://www.herald.ie/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/140
Author: Joyce Fegan

PHONE-BOX DRUG DEN ON BUSY STREET TO BE AXED

A CITY-CENTRE phone-box turned drug den is to be removed after a
four-year campaign.

Four Eircom phone-boxes, at 19-20 South Great George's Street, which
were being used for injecting heroin, have been listed for removal by
Dublin City Council (DCC).

"It became a ghetto. They were constantly being used for taking drugs,
hiding drugs and dealing drugs," said independent councillor Mannix
Flynn.

Mr Flynn had been campaigning for their removal for four years after
he became inundated with complaints from local businesses and
residents, who had become afraid of the area.

"The impact on the businesses was huge. The amount of businesses on
the street that were affected, it was just totally unacceptable," he
said.

In a letter to DCC's Chief Executive, Owen Keegan, on behalf of
stakeholders, it stated that the phone-boxes were, "subject to
constant anti-social behaviour which is having a huge negative impact
on local businesses at this location."

The phone-boxes, a number of bike racks and two public benches, are
located outside the Rustic Stone restaurant of celebrity chef Dylan
McGrath and a busy Dunnes Stores.

"This item has been on the agenda for the last four years with little
or nothing being done to alleviate the problem," read the letter to Mr
Keegan.

It also said that the phone-boxes resembled an "open
sewer."

Mr Keegan replied and stated that a meeting had taken place between
Eircom and DCC to address the problem. And he agreed that the
phone-boxes were "problematic and constantly vandalised".

"These phone-boxes at 19-20 South Great George's Street outside Dunnes
Stores will shortly be listed to Eircom for removal," Mr Keegan added
in his letter.

Mr Flynn hopes that they will be removed immediately.

"They became meeting places and people would use them to make calls to
get gear," Mr Flynn told the Herald.

"I've any amount of video footage and photographs of the activity that
went on in them."

The phone-booths are also located close by to at ATM.

One idea that was mooted last year to tackle public consumption of
drugs was mobile-injecting units.
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MAP posted-by: Matt