A MOTHER has spoken of her horror at discovering a squalid riverside drug den next to a popular York footpath.

Katie Rix, 28, of Aldborough Way, off Leeman Road, York, was shocked to find scores of filthy syringes along with other drug paraphernalia, dirty blankets and piles of rubbish while walking her dog by the River Ouse.

Miss Rix, who has a six-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter, also discovered a pile of emptied handbags that had been rifled through and dumped in bushes close to the path.

The riverside walkway is a popular route for both dog walkers and children.

She said: "It's disgusting. I just find it so repulsive and horrible. If people are going to use this stuff they should dispose of it safely.

"People walk down here all the time. A lot of kids are down here and people walking their dogs. There are going to be some parents who let their kids play down here. It could be really dangerous and people have to be aware of this."

"It's really awful to see. There are blankets all over the place, so obviously it is used to squat there."

She contacted city council environmental health officers on Monday at 12.30pm and was told they would clear the site. But when she returned that evening she found waste still strewn across the path and was told council workers had mistaken the site for another drug den they found further along the river.

She said: "I phoned the environmental health and they said they would go and move them. They rang me in the afternoon and said that they were walking along the river and they would remove them. They said they had cleared an area further down, but it's not far from there and I can't believe they missed it."

A City of York Council spokeswoman said: "Members of the council's commercial services team went out to the problem area and picked up a number of items relating to drug use.

"We have spoken to Ms Rix and understand that there is still some waste at the site, so the team will go out to re-check the area."

Keith McInnis, of drugs charity Compass, said the group offered a safe needle exchange system for heroin addicts in York and North Yorkshire to prevent dirty needles being dumped on the streets.

He said: "We do everything we can to prevent this kind of disposal because our concerns are for the community which we work in."

Updated: 10:11 Wednesday, September 28, 2005