Children as young as ten are experimenting with drugs such as cannabis and speed on the streets of Coventry. The youngsters know where to get it and who to buy it from according to a report out today. The report also says that heroin is readily available and one dealer is known to be selling the so-called ‘’date-rape’’ drug Rohypnol.

The shocking picture has been painted by the city council’s Action Against Crime policy team which has spent the last 12 months working in parts of Tile Hill and Canley as part of a major drive to cut crime.

Team co-ordinator Ian Tresadern said he made no apologies for making the drugs findings public but warned people not to overreact. He said:

‘’Tile Hill and Canley are no different from any other suburban city area across the UK. It is a sad fact but the truth is that youngsters are getting involved in drugs. We hope that by highlighting the problem people will help us do something about it. ‘’

He said that most of the information the team had collected had been anecdotal but by observing people on the streets and talking to locals they had been able to form a picture of drug use in both areas.

He added he had only heard of one case of someone dealing in Rohypnol but one was enough. He said:

‘’If we hadn’t included this in our report then we are failing people. We are failing the girl in the Coventry nightclub who feels a bit, or probably more than a bit, dizzy after a drink of lager and lime and later gets dragged off by a man.

‘’We would also be failing the parents and teenagers of the city if we tried to hide the reality of drugs. The important thing is to gather information, face the reality and then do something about it.’’

The city council’s Action Against Crime policy team have been working in Tile Hill and Canley for the last year as part of a pilot project to cut crime. The project, called Reclaiming Coventry, has involved a whole variety of people working together from police, social services and local residents groups to politicians and technical surveillance experts.

The brief was to fight back against long term crime and make people feel safer in their own homes.

As well as looking at the behaviour of youngsters and criminals the team has worked with the elderly, introducing a Domestic Security drive offering to fit locks and security devices to homes for free.

Victim Support has also been involved in speaking to local people about their fear of crime and close circuit television has been used across the two areas to clamp down on offenders.

Today councillors unanimously backed the Reclaim project and voted to allocate a further £450,000 to keep the schemes up and running in Tile Hill and Canley as well as looking to expand it to other areas of the city. The vote came after hearing that since reclaim began its work crime in Tile Hill and Canley has dropped. In Tile Hill figures showed reported crime was down by 17 per cent and in Canley crime had dropped by 47 per cent.

Mr Tresadern said he felt Reclaim had made a difference. He said:

‘’People do feel safer. People have been exceptionally grateful for the domestic security service which has fitted locks to more than 200 homes. I remember speaking to one pensioner who said he felt safer in his home and also much happier to leave his home, knowing it was secure.

‘’We hope that in the last 12 months we have proved that the Reclaim model which attacks crime and the fear of crime, from many angles does work."