HOUSEHOLDERS have voiced concerns at plans to open a drugs and alcohol centre on their residential street.

The new centre, which will have a needle exchange, will cost about £55,000 and is due to open on the corner of Roseberry Terrace and Palmerston Street in Consett in the coming months.

It will be run by the charity North-East Council for Addiction as part of the multi-agency Drugs Action Team. The annual £200,000 running costs will be funded by central and local Government and the NHS.

The much smaller Neca property currently used in the town centre will be closed down.

Residents held a meeting with the charity last week to seek assurances that the new centre will not be open late at night and that drug and alcohol addicts will be monitored.

They have also contacted Derwentside District Council after it emerged that the charity had received planning permission for the clinic two years ago. The residents claim they were not properly informed.

One resident, who asked not to be named, said the drugs centre should be built in the town centre and not in a residential street.

She said: "Everyone agrees that there should be something done about drugs but not on a residential street. There's lots of children here and we want to know they will be safe."

David Cliff, co-ordinator of the County Durham Drugs Action Team, said that the centre would have several functions. It would be used as a counselling centre, a base for nurses working in the community, training, an information centre, a needle exchange and as a place where drug addicts can receive prescriptions for substitute drugs.

He said: "There will be a code of conduct for anybody coming here, which they must abide to. We have found in the past that people actually welcome us after we've been in a community for a while. For example there is generally fewer needle finds once we are established. The other thing is Derwentside has actually fewer heroin users than elsewhere in the county. We want to try and keep it that way."

A spokesman for Derwentside District Council said the premises received permission for non-residential, community-based work two years ago and did not need to apply again.