The town on the edge of Peak District well on the way to being free of drug gangs

More than 80 arrests have been made and five properties have been issued with closure notices

Buxton, the quiet spa town in the High Peak area of Derbyshire, is known for its scenic views, beautiful Georgian town houses, and a thriving market yet there is a surprising dark side to all of this, as Manchester-based County Lines gangs had been using the town.

However Project Unity, a home office operation put in place to tackle county lines operations across the country has been a success in Buxton. As part of an operation started last year by Derbyshire police, more than 80 arrests have been made, five properties have been issued with closure notices and drugs have been seized - notably just under 1,000 cannabis plants found above an old M&S store in the town centre.

You might not picture Buxton as a hub of criminal activity, and it’s not, yet the criminal gangs supplying Class A drugs have drawn in a range of different problems for the local community, as many of these crimes have knock-on effects with an increase in lesser crimes.

This is exhibited in crimes such as anti-social behaviour, violence, thefts, burglary, robberies and weapon possessions. All of which have seen a decrease since the police have stepped up patrols in the town.

Buxton was chosen as a part of a Government scheme by the Home Office as it was situated in key routes between large cities, and it was the first in the East Midlands to start Project Unity.

Sergeant Patrick Haley, from the Buxton SNT, said: “Buxton was picked for a variety of reasons, we had a bit of a drug issue there. People would be unaware of the issue but we were.

"The initial objectives we had were to reduce the associated offences with the drug industry and we’ve done that by a series of warrants in Buxton and Manchester. We are making it an unappealing place for these operations. It's been a success so far.”

The operation was first initiated in July 2023 and as a result Derbyshire and Manchester police have made a “significant number of arrests, more than we initially anticipated”.

Despite this, the operation has mainly found its successes with reducing the number of Class A drug offences in the area and the crimes associated with this.

The Home Office initiated operation however states the line that police aim to “clear, hold, build”. This message simply means that Derbyshire police have been clearing out the criminal gangs in the area, upping the police presence to hold and decrease the current level of drug offences. This is followed by building the community up to a standard where criminal gangs would be discouraged to choose Buxton as their next target.

Sergeant Haley continued: “There are a lot of different streams to it, we’ve worked very closely with High Peak Borough Council. We will try and clear the criminality out and then it will become a police and council issue, where we work with multiple organisations to stop the criminality coming back. We want to build an environment where the community will move forward past this issue. We are now at the hold stage of the plan, and we have done a lot of clearing but it will always be more clearing to do.”

These objectives are being completed by the police setting up Project Unity offices in Buxton for people to come and talk about the issues bothering them in the area. The police have also worked with the local council in order to provide additional CCTV in the Fairfield area, as well as encouraging the use of Crimestoppers.

Derbyshire police has stated that they have had an increase of 60% in anonymous calls to the Crimestoppers service allowing for more community cohesion between the police and locals.

This is an ongoing operation with similar operations from across the country taking place in different towns affected by the invisible nature of county lines. The prevalence of which is often disguised to the general public, as Crimestoppers stated in 2022 that there were 3,000 reports of suspected county lines operations across different locations in the UK.