MORE than £40,000 set aside to help recovering drug addicts in Swindon could be poached and used to fund other cash-strapped services.

The money is currently protected, preventing it being used for anything other than tackling the town's drug problem.

But councillors are set to change the rules, allowing them to take the money and use it elsewhere.

The proposal has been condemned by a senior councillor and a drug group for being short-sighted.

There are currently 2,000 heroin addicts in the town.

They create a huge drain in resources through petty crime and pressure on health services.

John Taylor (Lab, Central) and Druglink project manager Glenys Armstrong insist the cash is vital if some of the town's most vulnerable people are to be helped.

Coun Taylor said: "Drugs have a corrosive effect they destroy individuals, they destroy families and they can lead to a fatal outcome."

Officials predict that, by the end of the financial year next March, £43,000 will remain from £59,000 of Swindon Council's community care budget allocated to ex-addicts who need help in staying away from drugs.

Ms Armstrong says the projected £43,000 underspend does not reflect a lack of demand or need by former Please use ragout of Saturday's front page. There is one already scanned in in Tuesday's page one drug users for aftercare.

Instead, she claims, the money has not yet been used because of a lack of funding for services aimed at weaning addicts off drugs in the first place.

This situation recently changed when the Government announced extra funding for measures such as methadone programmes and addiction counselling in the town.

With more people able to come off drugs, Ms Armstrong explained, demand for aftercare would increase and the money set aside would be needed.

She is now lobbying the council in a bid to protect the cash until it is needed.

She added: "There are waiting lists to get drug-free, but the Government has recognised this and is putting lots of money in.

"But now, just at the time when it looks as if this money intended to help people afterwards will be needed, it looks as if it might not be available.

"We are talking about people whose whole lives have been disrupted."

Council leader Mike Bawden (Con, Old Town and Lawns) said councillors would have to decide if and when the ring fence would be removed, as well as where the £43,000 might be diverted.

He added: "I share all of John Taylor's concerns because drugs are horrible things. But John knows and I know that we just do not have enough money to fulfil our statutory duties."

Druglink sees 500 people a year, but these are thought to be only the tip of the iceberg as not all addicts seek help or even admit they have a problem.

The Advertiser reported on Saturday that two addicts had been jailed for drug-related crime. Crack cocaine dealer John Rodney was jailed for six years and armed robber Stephen Mall for four years.

Swindon Council has warned there may be a council tax rise of around 10 per cent this year to make up for a shortfall in money it receives from the Government.

But it was criticised yesterday when it was revealed that it was spending £125,000 on new computers for 43 of its councillors. Each councillor will receive the equivalent of computer equipment worth £2,900.