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News (Media Awareness Project) - UK: Headteacher's Delight As Nearby Needle Exchange Scheme Is
Title:UK: Headteacher's Delight As Nearby Needle Exchange Scheme Is
Published On:2010-08-26
Source:Northampton Chronicle & Echo (UK)
Fetched On:2010-08-27 15:02:29
HEADTEACHER'S DELIGHT AS NEARBY NEEDLE EXCHANGE SCHEME IS
DROPPED

The headteacher at a Northampton primary school has said she is
"really pleased" that plans to run a needle-exchange scheme at a
pharmacy, which backs on to the playing field, have been shelved.

The Abington Health Complex in Beech Avenue put in a planning
application at the start of the month to open a new pharmacy by
developing an existing waiting area within the surgery.

It was proposed that the pharmacy would be licensed as a needle
exchange, open 100 hours a week.

But yesterday it was announced that the proposal had been
withdrawn.

Kay Gerrett, headteacher of Cedar Road Primary School, said the
proposal had been a "huge worry" due to the closeness of the school
playing field to the health centre, which she feared would become "a
focus for drug users to attend at all hours".

In a letter of objection sent to Northampton Borough Council's
planning department, Ms Gerrett said: "We would like to express strong
objections to the proposal on behalf of our school population.

"When the premises were used as an emergency doctors' surgery we
suffered a considerable amount of vandalism and damage out of hours,
particularly with reference to items being thrown over the fence on to
our field," Ms Gerrett added.

"The long opening hours that are proposed concern us a great deal as
this is a very densely-populated residential area and there are many
families with young children who live immediately outside the school
and health centre boundaries, thus the increase in traffic and
disturbance out of hours would be considerable.

"Parking for the local residents is mainly on the street so there
would be a great deal of congestion that would be caused with
additional cars needing to park."

Ms Gerrett said the school site manager checked the playing field
every morning but it was a large field and it could become a "prime
target" for discarded needles.

The headteacher has also raised the fact that the consultation on the
plans was happening during the school holidays, a time when parents,
governors and staff would be unaware of it.
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