Despite a large number of police initiatives and operations to both prevent the distribution of drugs in our communities and bring those responsible for dealing in this deadly trade to justice, the problem does not seem to be going away.

That’s the finding of a new report carried out by the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire, which identifies Bradford people as having a significantly higher perception, on average, that drug-related crime is blighting their neighbourhoods than anywhere else in the county.

It is disappointing that this is still one of the major areas of concern for local communities and that even though great efforts have been taken to tackle the problem, little has changed in the past four years.

It must be borne in mind, of course, that this survey is a measure of people’s perception of crime rather than hard statistics about what offences are actually committed and how many people are arrested in connection with them.

But not being based on cold fact does not mean the results of this survey are any less important than the “official” crime figures. If people perceive that drugs crime is a problem and live in a state of fear about it, then that is an equally worrying problem for the police.

The reasons behind the answers to this survey need to be carefully examined and acted upon by the authorities. Where fear of crime proves to be groundless, then more needs to be done to reassure communities that they are not in as much danger as they think. And where those worries do have substance, then more needs to be done to tackle the root causes.