Drug use is increasing on Norwich's Prince of Wales Road, people who live nearby told a public meeting specially convened to discuss issues in the city's night-time economy.

And Norfolk police revealed how door staff regularly seize drugs from people trying to get into venues.

The comments came at a stakeholder forum meeting last night, organised by the Green Party.

One man told the Wensum Lodge meeting, how the closure of a number of the roads leading off Prince of Wales Road to traffic meant people were taking advantage of the quieter, less busy streets to take drugs.

He said: 'There's been a subtle shift and that's drug use. Beforehand, it was people urinating and fighting, but now it is people snorting cocaine and smoking marijuana.'

Chief Inspector Nathan Clark, from Norfolk police, said there had been an increase, nationally, in the use of recreational drugs over the past two years.

He said: 'The venues do a lot of seizures of people trying to enter clubs. We see the evidence of that. At least once a week someone on the door staff calls something in.'

The meeting also heard criticism of Norwich City Council's environmental health department over its enforcement of noise from clubs.

But Keith Driver, cabinet member for neighbourhoods and community safety, said the authority had been taking action.

Green councillor Ben Price, who represents Thorpe Hamlet, also floated his recent suggestion that a nightclub zone should be set up on an industrial estate to allow a better mix of use in Prince of Wales Road.

But members of the public said, while that was an interesting idea, they did not believe that was a workable solution.

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