CRACKHOUSE closure orders have led to the boarding-up of nine bedsits and flats in Cudworth.
The Crescent flats on Pontefract Road were raided by 60 police officers in an early morning raid a fortnight ago, amid complaints of drug-taking and nuisance.
The orders last for three months, during which it is an offence for anyone, apart from the landlord, to enter the premises.
The closure, ordered by magistrates on Wednesday, comes after the police officers found class A drugs and drug paraphernalia on the premises.
A comparison of crime figures before and after the raid shows crime in that area has been reduced by 28 per cent.
Superintendent Simon Torr said: “Over a considerable period of time, several years in fact, the flats have been a problem in terms of habitual drug use in and around the premises.
“There has been nuisance caused by the occupiers and an increase in crime on the Rose Tree Estate which is populated by older and sometimes vulnerable people.” He added parents taking children to the Wonderland Nursery were put in the awful situation of finding needles.
Full story in this week's Royston edition.
