A COUNCILLOR has admitted drugs use has spiralled out of control in his area.

But Councillor Paul Kirton said the problem in Stockton was no worse than in other towns and cities in the North-East.

Cllr Kirton, who represents Stockton town centre ward, was responding to comments by a resident living on the Portrack estate in Stockton who condemned police and the housing association Thirteen for failing to act against troublemakers.

The resident said drug addicts living in flats on Portrack were behaving like zombies because of the substances they were taking and described dealers regularly gathering on doorsteps to pedal their wares.

The man, who hasn’t been named by The Northern Echo in order to protect his identity, said some of those responsible for a litany of anti-social behaviour on the estate were “animals” and described fights where people regularly armed themselves with knives and baseball bats.

Cllr Kirton said: “I have a lot of sympathy. The police have a day of action and then you don’t see them for a long time, that is something I keep complaining about myself.

“You need a police presence, but they can’t be on the estate all the time particularly with the resources that they have. They just don’t have the numbers.

“However the police do have plans to respond to some of these issues again in the near future.”

The councillor, who was first elected in 1995, said the quality of housing in his ward had improved, but drugs remained a huge problem.

He said: “The drugs in circulation, it has spiralled out of control. But then that’s throughout the borough and elsewhere, Darlington, Hartlepool, Redcar, you can go anywhere you want it’s the same.”

Cllr Kirton confirmed a security camera, which cost more than a thousand pounds, was funded by himself and fellow councillor Di Hewitt for a parade of shops on Portrack from a small budget they had, but was smashed and “survived only three days”.

He revealed the council had plans to fund more play equipment for a multi-games area near the Portrack estate in the hope it would stop some teenagers from being a nuisance.

However he conceded there were an older cohort of residents who were in and out of the criminal justice system who were harder to deal with.

He said: “We are all working together, Thirteen group, the MP, me and Di and the police.

“All we can do is keep on trying.”