Cheap cocaine 'fuelling violence in Shrewsbury pubs'

Chris Jones, who runs the Albion Vaults in Castle Foregate, said he faced a constant battle to keep drug users out of his pub.

He said on one occasion a member of staff was ‘glassed’ in the face while removing a man who had been trying to take drugs in the ladies’ toilets.

Mr Jones said he had been forced to spray all hard surfaces in the pub toilets with a lubricant spray so that drug users could not use them to inhale cocaine.

“Cocaine is a huge problem, because the price in Shrewsbury is rock bottom,” he said.

“I spray car maintenance oil on all the hard surfaces because it ruins the drugs, it is something a lot of landlords are doing.

“When you spray it on, it leaves a clear film, and you can’t see it.

"But when they put the powder on it, the cocaine goes brown, and every weekend I’m spending the mornings scraping all the brown residue in the toilets.”

He raised the issue with Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski during a meeting at the pub with other representatives from the licensed trade in the town.

Mr Kawczynski said a number of other pub landlords had told him similar stories.

Mr Jones said the problem had forced him to employ door staff at the pub.

He added that many of the people who were causing trouble were not even customers, but were just coming in to make use of the toilets.

“The price of cocaine in Shrewsbury is at rock bottom, it’s lower than it’s ever been,” he said.

“Every Saturday night I’m chucking somebody out.

“Often the people who cause trouble in here don’t even buy a single drink, yet the landlord still gets the blame.

Mr Jones said he and his staff had their work cut out trying to stop users just walking in off the street to use his toilets.

"Sometimes you just watch people walking past, they don't even buy a drink, they just head in to check out the toilets, and when you are working behind the bar you are having to keep an eye on this all the time.

"Cocaine is a monster, if you chuck somebody out who has been on cocaine they want to smash the pub up.

"We had a member of staff who got glassed after a man was caught trying to snort cocaine in the ladies.

“He only suffered a light cut, but that’s not what you want when you go to work.”

"I didn't even ring the police, I told the Pub Watch and he was given a five-year banning order from going into pubs in part of Shrewsbury, I found that was a more effective way to deal with it."