Oswestry’s police inspector has allayed fears over the town’s GHB problem and said it is a “very low crime area”.

Inspector Jim Stafford said he in no way wanted to diminish the personal tragedies that the drug had led to.

But he said the problem had to be put into perspective.

He was speaking at a meeting of Oswestry’s Local Joint Committee in the Cabin Lane Whole Life Centre, after Councillor Bill Benyon had said that media reports about GHB could hurt the town.

He said: “We are not, as we are painted, the drug capital of the world. I don’t want people staying away from Oswestry because they think we have a drug problem.”

Mr Stafford said there had been a problem with the GHB drug in Oswestry.

“The issue of GHB had to be dealt with in Oswestry and the steps that are being taken by the police and other agencies are doing just that,” he said.

“However, I am concerned that the problem must be put into perspective.

“While not wanting to diminish the personal tragedies that this drug has already caused to individuals, I must stress that GHB does only affect a very small percentage of the population.”

“Oswestry is a very low crime area and is a great place in which to live and work.”

Mr Stafford, who was first stationed in the town in 1985 and has been its police inspector for 11 years, said that West Mercia police had continued to maintain a large presence in Oswestry.

“Unlike neighbouring Chirk, which has just lost its only dedicated police officer, I have been able to keep ours in the villages of Gobowen, Weston Rhyn and St Martins, with two in Oswestry town and four in the Ellesmere area,” he said.

“We also have nine Community Support officers that cover Oswestry.”

He said that during the past decade he had never seen such good partnership working between the police and the other agencies and organisations.

“We have monthly meetings that are not simply a strategic talking shop but that look at individual problems and solutions,” he said.

“I hope we can all get the message across that Oswestry is a very, very, nice town.

“It is a very different town at night to the town of a decade ago when we had fights and anti-social behaviour every weekend,” he added.

“My younger police officers would not recognise the picture I could paint of what Oswestry was like then.”

By Sue Austin