OUTRAGED parents trying to close two Taunton shops selling legal high drugs have used people power to spark a council debate.

The issue will be discussed by Taunton Deane councillors in December after 600 people signed a petition calling for action to stop anti-social behaviour caused by users.

It is the first time members of the public have forced the authority into a debate since the rules were changed to make it easier.

Opposition leader Cllr Simon Coles, whose LibDem group linked with anti-legal highs South West Action Group to run the petition, said something must be done to protect children.

“Just last week, there were reports of children in school uniforms visiting the shops – (Hush in Bridge Street and Wicked in East Reach),” said Mr Coles, who added that 96 people in the UK died last year from legal highs, which cost the country £15billion.

“I’d prefer children weren’t in that sort of environment.

“We can’t stop legal highs being sold on-line, but we want to stop them being sold over the counter in Taunton.

“We want to stop children getting legal highs because they wreck lives.”

The council’s community scrutiny meeting on Tuesday will hear how legal highs – also called new psychoactive substances – “are causing major problems” in Taunton, with discarded needles causing injuries, anti-social and intimidating behaviour, mental health issues and some public toilets becoming ‘no-go areas’.

A report to the meeting says the council has “no current power...to tackle” Hush and Wicked, who decline to speak to the County Gazette, although officers will watch developments in other parts of the country.

Meanwhile, council leader John Williams (Conservative) has written to Home Secretary Theresa May expressing concerns about legal highs.

He said: “We have been investigating the various powers to see what we can do to stem the availability of these legal highs, in particular through local shops that are openly and irresponsibly selling these substances and hiding behind the fact they can sell them, providing it is labelled ‘not for human consumption’, although they clearly are selling it only for that use.”

He added that we should look at how the problem is addresses in Ireland, Poland and New Zealand, where all such products are illegal until approved by a medical council.