DEATHS are inevitable if police do not crack down on drug abusers in Winchester City Centre, residents told officers.

Vagrants and heroin users are a danger to themselves as long-standing problems with drug abuse in North Walls and Upper Brook Street continue, a Police and Communities Together meeting heard.

Residents said a secluded corner behind Holy Trinity Church is a hot-spot for heroin abuse and anti-social behaviour.

One aggrieved resident, of Merchants Place, said he recently saw an intoxicated man escape death after running into North Walls traffic.

He said: “When we saw the chap that was lying down in the road, I thought he was dead. [Then] he ran head first into the traffic. He was inches away from death, but I couldn’t stop him because I’m just Joe Public.

“It’s going to happen, guys – we can’t do anything about this.”

PC Joe Zubaidi said vagrants are attracted to Winchester for its support services but many are not truly homeless.

He said: “Most of them have homes, paid for by us, the taxpayer, then they go out and beg.

“We don’t want them to [loiter], but we’ve become almost a bit Nazi-like if we tell people they can’t be there if they’re looking a bit scruffy. It’s not an offence.”

But he said drug law was “a bit perverse” because officers could only arrest users if they had hard evidence of possession.

The Chronicle recently reported how benches have been removed from outside Kings Walk to deter anti-social behaviour.

“We know people take drugs,” PC Zubaidi said. “Winchester gives lots of people lots of help. It’s a strange system but that’s how it works.”

Sandie Vining, of Neighbourhood Watch, urged residents to report all anti-social behaviour to help police “build up a picture”.

Police and Community Support Officer (PCSO) Tim Wyld said that around six street drinkers have died including suicides and drug overdoses this year but they have been replaced by a “new lot” arriving in the city.

“We say if you’re going to do these things, do them out of sight,” he told the Hampshire Chronicle after the meeting. “We don’t want to bully people.

“People complain more about cyclists and footpaths in this town than they do begging – that’s the truth.”

The groups from Kings Walk have relocated to Lawn Street and a bench on Lower Brook Street.