Photo: Contributed

Discarded needles in the downtown were identified as a problem by the Activate Safety Taskforce and council has approved a program to deal with the situation.

Council will direct administration to review the feasibility of daily clean ups in the identified hot spots, in conjunction with the weekly program operated by the North Okanagan Youth and Family Services Society for inclusion in the Folks on Spokes program, under Community Safety.

During 2019 budget deliberations, council approved $33,000 to implement a Folks on Spokes and Sharps Hotline to operate from March to November.

The Monday-to-Friday hotline would be set up to allow people to report discarded needles.

The pilot program would be complete in October after which a report will be sent to council.

Folks on Spokes would provide daily clean up of hot spots in the community which will reduce the number of discarded needles in the city.