Fenham Library drug rehab hub fight taken to MP

Residents who have had meetings with the council have appealed to their MP to help

Angry residents have asked their MP to help halt plans for a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre in a library.

Residents say they were not told it would house addiction services and are concerned about drug dealers and discarded pills and needles.

Newcastle Central Labour MP Chi Onwurah said she would ask for plans to be paused for a "proper consultation".

The "health and wellbeing hub" in Fenham Library "posed no risk", Newcastle City Council said.

Ms Onwurah said she had "seen and heard the strength of feeling".

Protestors brought a petition with more than 2,000 signatures to her constituency surgery on Saturday.

"This is the largest surgery I've ever had," Ms Onwurah said.

Residents had "expressed their concerns to me forcibly both at surgeries and in letters and emails to me," she said.

They recognised rehabilitation was important but there were "real concerns about the level of consultation and the risks associated with bringing this service into the library", she said.

The library is next to Fenham Pool, which was an additional cause of concern

Tim Morgan, who lives in the area, said people were "sympathetic to the aims of the centre" but, given the lack of consultation, "assume the worst".

"If you said the words drug addiction and school and young people and vulnerable older people in the same sentence you've got to expect people to be concerned," he said.

Jenny Hall-Murray said it was "unethical" for the council to "leave a vital piece of information out".

Newcastle City Council said the centre "posed no risk" but accepted it could have consulted residents more.

The new facility would provide health and nutrition advice, counselling services, stop smoking support, a gym and a café, the authority said.