HEROIN addicts in Swindon are to be given special bins in order to discard their used syringes.

Drug needles littering the town's streets have been a growing problem.

Last year Swindon Services staff picked up more than 5,500 discarded needles.

Needles have been found in parks and play areas, and the problem has become so bad that some public toilets have been temporarily closed by the council.

Now Swindon Council has spent £1,000 on purchasing six "sharp boxes". They should all be installed by the end of this month. Four locations have been agreed. They are at the rear of Druglink in Old Town, Corporation Street and Carfax Street in the town centre, and Cavendish Square in Parks.

It will cost £3,000 a year to empty the bins and incinerate the contents.

The project has come about after a request from the street wardens who carry out community safety patrols in Parks and Walcot.

Over the last 10 months they have collected more than 500 needles.

Swindon Council drug and alcohol action team manager Glenys Armstrong said: "Oxford already has these bins and this proved to be a very successful project.

"It has reduced the number of needles on the streets and the hope is the same will now be happening in Swindon. The bins are being put in areas where needles have been found on the ground.

"They might be where a user hasn't known what to do with the needle before and just thrown it in a hedge or something hopefully now they will see the bin."

She explained the bins are made out of toughened material which the needles cannot puncture.

Jane Leaman, from the Swindon NHS primary care trust, said: "These bins will provide an invaluable measure to protect the public against injury from inappropriately discarded needles."

Swindon has been estimated to have more than 2,000 heroin users.