A combination of cold weather and high visibility police patrols seems to have driven drug addicts out of a popular Oxford nature reserve.

Malcolm Taylor, senior street warden for Blackbird Leys and Rose Hill, said his team had not found a syringe in the Spindleberry Nature Park in Blackbird Leys for two months.

In August, the Oxford Mail revealed the park had become a haunt for addicts who injected drugs then left needles and other drug paraphernalia scattered in bushes.

By September the wardens were finding up to 15 syringes during each of their three times a week patrols.

But since the end of October, no needles have been found at the nature reserve, which is popular with dog walkers, children and bird watchers.

Mr Taylor said: “It is good to get them out of there. Anything that keeps them away from areas where children are likely to be is a good thing.”

Drug addicts first began using the park more than a year ago.

They began by shooting up by a memorial bench near the park’s pond before creating another den in undergrowth at the Windale Avenue end of the park.

A year ago the wardens were regularly finding six to eight needles at a time, as well as drug vials containing diamorphine hydrochloride — a prescription substance used to treat heroin addiction — and human excrement.

The estate’s Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) have also been patrolling the park regularly.

Mr Taylor said: “We had a very wet season after October and now we have had a cold spell. It could be they have found somewhere else to shoot up that is covered up and warmer.

“It could be a high visibility presence or it could be the weather conditions. We haven’t come across anywhere else they have gone.

“We will have to wait and see, during the spring and summer, if they come back.”

The number of needles being found across the estate as a whole has also fallen to single figures.

Mr Taylor said areas including a makeshift den under Blackbird Leys bridge on Blackbird Leys Road, which had previously seen drug activity, had shown no sign of being reused.

Gordon Roper, chairman of Blackbird Leys Parish Council, said: “I am over the moon that we are not getting the needles there.”

He added: “It will ease the problem of worrying about children playing in the park – but everyone still has to be vigilant.”

If you find a hypodermic needle do not touch it – call the council’s City Works hotline on 0800 783 1957.

ghamilton@oxfordmail.co.uk