He says cutting the number of bedsits would also cut the amount of crime in Rhyl.

BBC: Action against Rhyl's bedsit land

The building, which previously housed six bedsits, was last owned by A2Dominion which will work in partnership with the council on the redevelopment project.

BBC: Grimsbury 'eyesore' building revamp planned

The council has since confirmed there are only two treatment centres in Boscombe and the remaining "services" are accommodation - some of which is registered supported housing - but the figure also includes bedsits where addicts and other vulnerable people live.

BBC: Boscombe drug clinics 'not root of social problems'

Alas this happy ploy is more or less confined to countries such as Sweden, where ministers resign for forgetting to pay television-licence fees, and members of parliament perch in tiny, state-owned bedsits while working in the capital: 72% of Danes and 66% of Swedes duly told a 2010 Eurobarometer poll they trusted national parliaments.

ECONOMIST: British distrust for politicians is peculiarly dangerous