Shortly before we moved from Kleinbasel last year a retired neighbour in our building went to the Ombudsman about all the problems during the night with open drug dealing, dealers fighting and arguing loudly etc. None of us could sleep and the main police station a street away at Clarastrasse was doing nothing.

We were given a specific number to ring when there was trouble, my husband had to use it at 5.30 one Monday morning as we'd been kept awake all night (the apartments opposite ours had all their lights on and people were at their windows). When he rang it it was a call centre, they merely told us to ring back again in another hour if the problems were still going on, then they'd get the police out.

Part of the problem in Kleinbasel is with the guy on the city council who's in charge of policing and justice. Everything he does is a PR stunt (I believe he used to be a PR guy before he got into politics). The ridiculous stunt he pulled with painting women against lamp posts on the pavements and a dotted line designating the red light zone just made matters worse. Some of the little businesses down there like hairdressers said it made the prostitutes more aggressive because if they asked them to move from their shop fronts they'd shout they owned the street. There's also a woman on the city council whose partner owns one of the contact bars and some flats down there.