A crack house used by addicts and dealers for the past 18 months has been closed by police.

Officers from Medway Police went to court this morning to get the address shut and boarded up to end months of misery for neighbours.

The Chatham flat - number 7, Peak House - was a preferred location for drug pushers as it was said to be at the centre of the town's prostitution racket.

At about 11.30am this morning, police were given permission to close the flat down for up to three months by magistrates in Medway under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act.

Officers immediately went to the flat, in the former Kent Reliance Building Society building opposite what the former Manor Road addiction centre and with the help of the landlord, boarded it up.

Neighbours have been living in terror for months as dealers and users regularly threatened them and used the flat and communal areas to inject heroin and deal Class A drugs.