DUDLEY Council has said it is working to find a solution to the issue of drug addicts using the town's multi-storey car park - leaving shoppers scared to use it.

Halesowen BID manager Vicky Rogers and bosses at the Cornbow Shopping Centre have called for the ageing multi-storey on Pool Road to be closed after issues with drug-users using it as a base and anti-social youngsters throwing items at shoppers.

Vicky said the car park is "dark, dingy, grotty and smelly" and is used by two drug addicts who leave drug paraphernalia and frighten off shoppers.

She said on January 25 a female street cleaner who went to investigate reports of a drug user in the car park found a man with his trousers round his ankles and a needle in his crotch area - the man pulled out the needle, blood went everywhere and he threw a blood-stained tissue at the cleaner.

The council, which runs the car park, said it has no plans to close it, but is aware of concerns.

Councillor Karen Shakespeare, cabinet member for environmental, highways and street services, said: “While there are currently no plans to close Pool Road car park, we are aware of concerns in the area.

"We are working closely with partner agencies to investigate these issues and to find a suitable solution.”

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Vicky said: "We have traders who are working their hearts out to make a living - yet people like this are driving people away from our town and we are not going to stand for it."

Councillor David Vickers, who is deputy leader of Dudley Council, said he is working on the issue.

He said: "Something needs to be done.

"The street cleaners are not happy - the lady came across a man injecting himself and they are forever having to clean up vomit and excrement - all sorts of stuff and they are not paid to do that.

"There was a bloke out for the count lying in piles of vomit around him.

"The street cleaners shouldn't have to deal with it. 

"We need police patrols at night and we need these people to be moved on."

The car park was built in the 1970s.