SYRINGES left in the street and youngsters taking drugs in parks as warmer weather hits will be tackled, police have promised worried residents.

Police said they were playing a long game to crack down on drug use in South Oxford, through “covert investigations” that they could not share with the public.

Officers also suggested that residents set up a Neighbourhood Watch group to ensure intelligence on suspected dealers was shared and acted on.

At a specially-held meeting at South Oxford Community Centre, people complained of drug dealers and users hanging around the neighbourhood.

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Residents warned the problem is set to “spiral out of control” in the summer, claiming warm weather sees Hinksey Park attract youngsters taking drugs.

It was at Hinksey Park that Martha Fernback, from Summertown, took a fatal dose of ecstasy – just 0.5g – in July 2013.

Lake Street resident Katie Lovegrove said: “There are well-known drug users, obviously they do a bit of dealing as well.

“It seems like it takes a long time to build evidence up and in the meantime we’re stuck with ridiculous things going on.

“The process is so slow that we are looking at another summer where it spirals out of control.”

South Oxford Community Association chairwoman Gill Garrett said: “As soon as the weather warms up you can be sure there will be a lot of kids turning up taking drugs in the park and sometimes the air is absolutely thick with smoke around the park.

“That poor young lady Martha was really unlucky, but that sort of activity is incredibly common.”

Martha’s mother, Anne-Marie Cockburn, called for conversations with drug users to tackle the root causes of drug use.

She said: “For local residents this is concerning.

“Martha loved being in Hinksey Park. As a 15-year-old studying hard for her GCSEs she loved the freedom of Hinksey Park.

“Undesirable people can become desirable if they needs are meet, it is more of a social problem.

“Whether it is Hinksey Park or Summertown, it is about having a conversation rather than presuming things.”

South Oxford residents also spoke about picking up used syringes from their driveways and the streets.

Oxford City Centre police sergeant Gordon Killie, who hosted the meeting on March 1, said his team was working on tackling the problems, but emphasised the need to build intelligence over a long period of time.

However, Thames Valley Police did not supply residents, or the Oxford Mail, with statistics about drug use or related crime in their area.

Sgt Killie said the problem was caused because users and dealers did not want to hang out in the city centre under the watch of CCTV, so they went to suburbs.

He said: “It may feel that sometimes your local police and council aren’t doing much for you, but we will try to tackle it.

“Firstly by putting people off coming to this area to take or deal drugs, but clearly we have to be a bit smarter than that.

“If you are trying to build up intelligence then you send a load of police officers in, everyone vanishes.”

He promised: “Things are being done. I won’t go into too many details but we do covert operations to build up intelligence on dealers.”

Sgt Kille went on: “If you guys can pull together you can assist us and maybe yourselves.”