A seaside town which neighbours a famous ‘millionaire’s row’ has suffered a slow descent into becoming the ‘heroin capital of England’.
Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, has been ranked amongst the 50 worst places to live in England and has been called the “drugs capital of the South”.
This is despite only being a stone’s throw from Sandbanks, a waterside street made up of just 13 houses that is claimed to be one of the most expensive stretches of coastal real estate in the world, worth a massive £93million in total.
Only five miles separate the two. One local described Sandbanks as “as close to California in the UK as you can get”, The Bournemouth Echo reported.
But the sleepy seaside town of Boscombe has long struggled with a drug problem.
Prior to the pandemic, in 2018 and 2019 the area had the highest number of heroin seizures by any police force with 232.
This earned it its infamous nickname the “heroin capital” of England and Wales.
Back in 2006, Bournemouth Borough Council released a report claiming that Boscombe became a "big importer of people with drug and alcohol problems".
These numbers were allegedly “stimulated” when drug treatment centres opened in the 90s and by 2013 The Sun reported that there were nearly 60 of these facilities available.
The former spa town has shaken off its unsavoury title this year, but some locals paint a picture of drug use and violence on the streets.
The The Daily Star reported that owner of Boscombe seafront-based restaurant Urban Reef, Mark Cribb said in January: "When I started in Boscombe 16 years ago, I was very conscious that we had the same beach and the same views, pretty much as Sandbanks, which was the third most expensive place to live at the time in the United Kingdom.
"It was beyond my comprehension how you can have somewhere only a few miles along the coast that was considered to be one of the worst."
Boscombe was listed as a “specific target” of the Conservative government's levelling-up scheme the Town’s Fund - giving locals some optimism of change.
However, despite the government’s rhetoric, some locals are not holding out hope.
Speaking to The Sun, one resident said: “It’s getting more violent than it used to be”.
“It’s not somewhere to go at night because there are a lot of homeless people and drug dealing is prevalent."
However, Chris Worthington-Foxley, 34, was more optimistic, he said: “Boscombe has a reputation of being a bit of a crack den and there are some colourful characters but you don’t see much trouble apart from people shouting and stumbling around."
Speaking to the Daily Echo, restaurant owner Mr Cribb, who has lived in the town for 16 years, offered a sunnier outlook.
"They can carry on criticising us, it’s really not a problem because it means that we can all afford to live here a little bit longer," he said.
