News Date: Tuesday 28th April 2009
Cannabis Cafe Closed At Last!
East Worthing & Shoreham Tim Loughton joined police and bailiffs to see the Cannabis Cafe in Freshbrook Road closed down once and for all. This follows almost two years of the premises being used for illicit activities despite the continued activities of the police and Adur Planning department to close it down and numerous raids. Yesterday the planning inspector turned down an appeal by the owners against enforcement of action following infringement of planning regulations and today the mortgage company moved to evict the owners. The police are also still planning to proceed with action under legislation passed last year to force a legal closure which they have been planning for some time. Tim had previously raised the issue in Parliament on several occasions and recently organised a meeting at the Home Office with Home Office Minister Alan Campbell. Tim commented:
'At last this nightmare has come to an end. For far too long the operators of this cafe have stuck two fingers up at the law and to all law abiding local residents who have had their community blighted by this operation in the middle of a residential area and close to schools. I pay tribute to the police who share my frustration that this whole process has dragged on for far too long and the operators have effectively exploited every loophole going. I also pay tribute to the patience and perseverance of the residents who have had to put up with a lot of hassle for a long time and at times despaired that anything was ever going to get done.
‘I have raised this matter in Parliament before at the highest level and I am now formally writing to the police, local authority planning department and the Home Office to get them all round a table to see what lessons can be learnt from this long running problem to make sure that these so-called cannabis cafes can not operate with impunity in the future and when they do appear they can be snuffed out much more speedily. Clearly what has happened in Lancing has ramifications for the whole country and it if necessary the law needs to be changed to prevent the proliferation of establishments like this peddling misery both for the residents around them and for the users of illegal substances which all experts now agree can cause long term damage to the health of young people in particular.'
