A DOORMAN who has worked in the town centre for more than 12 years said he is “shocked and disgusted” at the rise in drug use and anti-social behaviour has witnessed in the past year.

Peter Clayton, from Sutton, who has worked at various sites in town over the years, is currently on the doors at The Venue on Westfield Street.

The 38-year-old, took a picture on Wednesday, March 15 of discarded syringes – with needles still attached – next to litter outside of neighbouring venue, Lillies Bar, which he says he was alerted to by other drug users.

He said: “Two known drug users came up to me blaming others for the needles discarded outside nearby venue but I was shocked and disgusted when I saw what was there.

“I don’t know if it was them or others but it was around 4.45pm so any children could have been around the area then and could have picked anything up or even worse hurt themselves.

“Animals could have even been hurt. God knows what could happen afterwards as well.

“I don’t have children, but I have nieces and nephews and I would not want them around town on their own nowadays as it’s a rising problem with people using drugs and causing trouble all day, not just at night.

“Plenty of people use the area, including students at the college, so it’s disgraceful how it’s being used and I think they need a bigger police presence throughout the day.”

Superintendent Louis Harrison added: "Merseyside Police is committed to tackling all drug related crime and associated anti-social behaviour on our streets and takes a proactive approach to deal with this issue.

"When we receive information about drug-related crime, we act upon it and I want to reassure our communities that Merseyside Police is relentless in its pursuit of those involved in this type of crime.

“We will continue to take a robust and proactive approach, to arrest those involved, bring them to justice and remove these drugs, to keep our streets safe.

“I would urge the public to be vigilant and report any similar incidents to police immediately."

Abdul Mohamed, manager at Westfield News, agreed with Peter's thoughts on the area. He said: “I’ve noticed lots of anti-social behaviour around here causing problems in recent months.

“I think more people who cause trouble are coming to the area because nobody tells them off here.

“It would be good if more police were around, I haven’t seen drug use myself but bad behaviour happens a lot.”

Peter Myles, one of the managers at Gaslec, also on Westfield Street, added: “There needs to be a lot done to sort out the behaviour on this street, it doesn’t bother us directly but it’s not nice for customers to see.”