Pubdate: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 Source: Northampton Chronicle & Echo (UK) Copyright: 2010 Northamptonshire Newspapers Limited Contact: http://www.northantsnew.co.uk/news/chron/index.asp Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2739 HEADTEACHER'S DELIGHT AS NEARBY NEEDLE EXCHANGE SCHEME IS DROPPED The headteacher at a Northampton primary school has said she is "really pleased" that plans to run a needle-exchange scheme at a pharmacy, which backs on to the playing field, have been shelved. The Abington Health Complex in Beech Avenue put in a planning application at the start of the month to open a new pharmacy by developing an existing waiting area within the surgery. It was proposed that the pharmacy would be licensed as a needle exchange, open 100 hours a week. But yesterday it was announced that the proposal had been withdrawn. Kay Gerrett, headteacher of Cedar Road Primary School, said the proposal had been a "huge worry" due to the closeness of the school playing field to the health centre, which she feared would become "a focus for drug users to attend at all hours". In a letter of objection sent to Northampton Borough Council's planning department, Ms Gerrett said: "We would like to express strong objections to the proposal on behalf of our school population. "When the premises were used as an emergency doctors' surgery we suffered a considerable amount of vandalism and damage out of hours, particularly with reference to items being thrown over the fence on to our field," Ms Gerrett added. "The long opening hours that are proposed concern us a great deal as this is a very densely-populated residential area and there are many families with young children who live immediately outside the school and health centre boundaries, thus the increase in traffic and disturbance out of hours would be considerable. "Parking for the local residents is mainly on the street so there would be a great deal of congestion that would be caused with additional cars needing to park." Ms Gerrett said the school site manager checked the playing field every morning but it was a large field and it could become a "prime target" for discarded needles. The headteacher has also raised the fact that the consultation on the plans was happening during the school holidays, a time when parents, governors and staff would be unaware of it. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D