Plans for Bradford to have its own 'drugs czar' have been met by mixed reactions from health chiefs and local campaigners.

The decision to appoint a drugs commissioner for the city - dubbed the 'heroin capital of the North' - was made by Bradford Strategic Health Group. Britain already has a national czar, former West Yorkshire Chief Constable Keith Hellawell. The new official is set to work across different organisations and be responsible for new pooled budgets. The job is due to be filled by June.

Members of the Bradford Community Health Council welcomed the appointment at a specially convened meeting to tackle the state of drugs services in the city.

CHC member Karl Dallas said: "It is clear that with so many different agencies being concerned with helping addicts get clean, some co-ordination is required.

"Clearly, once again Bradford is leading the way, and having been stigmatised as the heroin capital of the North, this new initiative gives us the opportunity to make it the recovery capital of Britain, if not the whole of Europe."

He called for the new commissioner to set up a task force of recovered addicts to tour schools, youth clubs and dance venues to spread the message that recovery is possible.

But Christine Priestley, secretary of USER Friendly, a drug community project set up for addicts on Bradford's Thorpe Edge estate, said the 'drugs czar' would be just another man in a suit.

"People are doing nothing to get to the grass roots of the problem," she said. "We've already got a couple of former addicts who are going into schools and an education group. You've got to know what people are going through and hear it first hand, otherwise it's useless."

CHC members are also pushing for the creation of a residential rehabilitation centre in the city to prevent local addicts who want to kick their habit being sent all over the country for 24-hour care and counselling.

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