A new £5.8million service will tackle drug and alcohol addiction in Gloucestershire.

Charity Via will launch it on April 1 offering free and confidential help to adults at hubs in Cheltenham, Gloucester, and Stroud.

Gloucestershire County Council has pledged £5.8m annually for five years and may extend the service for another four years, bringing the total amount of funding to £52.2 million.

Via will partner with a network of community organisations throughout the county to provide advice, support and detox services.

Tom Sackville, Via chief executive, said: "We're very pleased to be working in the area. We'll have a team of about 70 working here."

Yasmin Batliwala, chair of Via, said: "We are looking forward to working in close collaboration with our partners and serving the needs of our clients and their families within the local communities across Gloucestershire to deliver high quality services."

Nearly one third of adults in Gloucestershire are likely to have used an illegal drug within their lifetime with an estimated 2,849 heroin and crack users.

Almost a third of the population drinks above the recommended weekly amount with an estimated 5,509 people experiencing alcohol dependence and 140 alcohol related deaths between 2017-2019.

Addiction fuels costly social problems including homelessness and drives crime with half of all homicides nationally linked to drugs and a third of prison inmates suffering from drug addiction.

In total the harm from drug misuses across the world are estimated to cost society £19.3billion per year.

Research shows every £1 spent on drug treatment, provides a social and economic benefit of £4 because of reductions in health, social care, and offending costs.

The county council agreed funding for the new service in January 2023 after the Government published a 10-year plan and promised grants to tackle the rising number of drug-related deaths.

In August the multi-agency Gloucestershire Combating Drugs Partnership (GCDP) was convened to help achieve this locally.

Until now Gloucestershire's drug and alcohol treatment provider has been Change Grow Live (CGL) but its contract will end on March 31.

Via is a London based charity which was formerly known as WDP (Westminster Drug Project) but over the last 30 years has grown into a national organisation.

It rebranded in 2023 and today helps thousands of people every year across the UK.

It is already collaborating with Stroud-based rehabilitation charity The Nelson Trust on the UK's first women's only detox - a national programme based in Gloucestershire.

Mark Hawthorne, leader of the county council and cabinet member for public health and communities, said: "I'm really pleased to welcome Via as Gloucestershire's new community drug and alcohol treatment provider.

"As well as helping some of our most vulnerable residents to turn their lives around, these services help to improve our communities. Housing, health, and social care services all benefit when drug and alcohol treatments are working effectively."