Drug needle waste bin approved for Belfast city centre car park

A trial for a drug needle waste bin has been approved for a Belfast city centre car park behind Central Library.

Elected representatives at a Belfast City Council committee meeting this week agreed to a “sharps” bin at Little Donegall Street, which runs from Library Street off Royal Avenue up to Carrick Hill on the cusp of the north of the city. The decision will go to the full council next month for ratification and is expected to pass.

Councillors were given a choice of one of two council owned car parks, at Little Donegal Street or Corporation Square. Other public areas that are known for even worse problems regarding discarded needles, such as Writer’s Square, are owned by Stormont.

Greens councillor Brian Smyth, who has previously tabled motions asking for the Glasgow model for sharps bins to be used in Belfast, backed the decision at City Hall, while stating the street was not at the centre of the problem.

He told elected representatives at the People and Communities Committee this week: “I have a bit of frustration at this not being put at Writer’s Square, because that is where we are finding the most used and discarded needles in the city. The Department for Communities are more worried about the image than the reality we face with an increasing drugs crisis in the city.

“I also know from looking at the data that Law’s Court (North Street) and Grosvenor Road are behind Writer’s Square in the top three, but again there is no council land there, so these are the road blocks.

He added: “My original motion was about building collective community safety, stopping needles being shared, and the associated problems that come with that. I am picking up that there has been a rise in hepatitis in the city and this is mainly linked to the injection of drugs.”