Calls were made for enforcement officers to deal with people dropping used needles in the same away as people dropping cigarettes.

Speaking at a Wrexham Council scrutiny meeting examining the problem of unsafely discarded syringes in the county, Cllr Nigel Williams said more should be done to target individual people.

Cllr Williams said: “I think we should go back to basics. We are looking at how to alleviate the problem after it has deen dropped but we should look at the people doing it.

“If you were walking down Lord Street and dropped a cigarette, Kingdom would be on you like a ton of bricks

“But if you drop a needle somewhere, you get away with it.

“We all know where these areas are – and we should be targeting them.”

But the authority’s head of environment and planning, Lawrence Isted, said it was not realistic.

“This is an addiction people service in the nooks and crannies of the county. They discard the needles out of sight,” he said.  

“It is not like smoking a cigarette which is being done in broad daylight in full view of the public.

“We do clear public ground. We can’t enforce against this activity because the people who use (drugs) are less likely to be in a position where we can bring them to any kind of justice.

“If it is public area, we can clear them. If it is private land, I think it is the responsibility of the owner to clear those areas.”

Cllr John Pritchard said the problem was worse than he had realised.

He said: “I went on a needle walk with AVOW and two officers and I was shocked.

“We need to be aware of what is going on behind the town centre shops.

“The back of the multi-story car park is chock-a- block with needles.

“The shops look okay at the front but if you go around the back you will see needles everywhere.”

Cllr Phil Wynn said action had been taken to clear several encampments on private land recently. 

“I’m fully aware public protection officers have the powers to enforce and challenge private land owners to clear land,” he said.

“They have been used at the back of NatWest on Lord Street and Network Rail by Wrexham Central station.

“It tends to be these encampments when users have congregated and disposed of hundreds of needles.

“We have the powers but thankfully most landowners do just get on with it and clear it themselves.

“The most recent one was at the back of B&Q which was full of rubbish and drug paraphernalia – but that has now been cleared.”

Wrexham Council’s executive director for place and economy Lee Robinson said: “In relation to the work that we do in the town centre and has been going on for the last 18 months, we continue to identify hotspot areas.

“We provide guidance based around harm reduction to try and educate users.

“Generally, from a health perspective it is better if you don’t use drugs at all but if you are going to, it is better if you smoke them rather than inject them.”

Cllr Derek Wright said: “In Ty Mawr, the only people who pick up litter are volunteers.

“I don’t know how many of them would have access to sharps boxes for needles.”

Cllr Wright said that, in the last fortnight, there had been multiple instances of used needles being found near the dugouts of the football pitches.

Cllr I David Bithell called for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to cover the cost of disposing of needles found on private land.

But Mr Isted said that was not feasible.

He said: “We have got to remember we are talking about private land.

“Members of the public are going to pick needles up and the advice is – if you’re going to do it, do it with care and dispose of it as safely as you can.

“It is impractical for the council to issue every house in the county with a sharps box in the event they find needles in their garden.”