THE extent of drug and legal high use in York should be investigation, a senior councillor has said.

Cllr Julie Gunnell, chairman of the Communities and Environment Policy and Scrutiny Committee, has urged City of York Council's Substance Misuse Team to delve deeper into factors surrounding drug abuse.

An initial report from Safer York Partnership's Alcohol, Violence and Night Time Economy (AVANTE) task group was presented to the committee by Steve Waddington, assistant director of housing and community safety, which claimed the use of legal highs did not appear to be a problem in York, although certain groups, like the homeless, are known to use them.

However, Cllr Gunnell, said the presentation did not scrutinise drug use enough and asked for an overview report to be compiled to address her concerns.

She said: "Apart from one paragraph on legal highs, which is very brief in terms of any drug issues, in the city, it does actually say there are pockets of use amongst certain groups, including the homeless.

"I find it absolutely amazing that in a report like this there isn't something a more substantial either to confirm York doesn't have a serious drug problem or actually York does and what are we doing about it?

"It seems to be omitted which I find hard to understand.

"I would like some sort of paper circulated to all members to inform us on what the current situation is with the work being done on drugs."

Mr Waddington said there is a problem with drugs but work is being done to tackle it.

"There are problems with drug usage in the city," he added, "It has formed part of the Safer York Partnership performance updates in the past around the work the council's substance misuse team do and the work of Lifeline, which is the contractor we have in place to manager some of the programmes we have for supporting drug users in the city."