Anna Bay Community Forum, Sunday July 22
Geoff Washington reports:
Judy and I attended a meeting at Anna Bay this afternoon called to discuss their wave of teenage crime, graffiti and terrorism of residents and especially young people who are not in the push. The stories are demoralising!!! It was chaired by Councillor Sally Dover and Councillors Bruce McKenzie and John Nell were also present. I estimate the attendance at 100. Apologies from the Mayor Bob Westbury and Craig Baumann, State Member.
Two senior police attended including the Acting Super and they assured us that they were doing their job to the extent that the law allows. The problem seems to be that older people and even those with families are terrified to make formal statements to the police (needed to trigger Police action) as they will be subject to attack and intimidation within days if they do. The police say that they are unable to act without a formal signed statement.
The Police present made only the briefest reference to the availability of the Crime Stoppers service (Phone 1800 33 3000) which will accept anonymous reports from anyone witnessing vandalism or crime. (Crime Stoppers does not accept such reports from the actual victim of crime). I would have expected that greater emphasis could have been given to this option for Anna Bay residents.
The response was very heated with one man virtually ejected for his passionate plea for action peppered with F… words. There were some others who thought that more effort was needed to offer young people alternative activities and to attempt to encourage them into more positive pursuits. While this is well intended, there are big challenges with this strategy – last week the bad guys tried to burn down the scout hall in which we were meeting and threatened a local resident who was attempting to put out the fire.
The outcome was a proposal to elect an Anna Bay Action Group to manage the community’s strategy and response. They nominated local resident, John Woodford, as President and Councillor Bruce Mackenzie also offered to serve in this role. No others volunteered for committee positions. With some prompting by Peter Davis (ex TRRA Committee) they went away on the basis of this group talking to an existing Action Group run by John McAuley from Fishermans Bay and the Anna Bay Business and Residents Group Inc. which already exists.
Councillor Mackenzie spoke towards the conclusion of the meeting, pouring cold water on all the reconciliatory strategies and on the laws constraining police action. This was an expected response to a complex social problem but I must say it is difficult to dispute in these circumstances. He waited to speak until near the end of the meeting opening both barrels at the law and I judge, won many of the attendees to his views.
After the meeting I was approached by Councillor Mackenzie and we agreed that no real solutions emerged from the meeting. He advised that he was going to stand for mayor and so was Councillor Dover. He was very affable and offered, if he is elected, to meet with us to discuss our concerns. He said he would listen but would not be “ told what to do.”
Geoff Washington, TRRA Inc. Chairman
after reading this i will no longer be looking to purchase a property in anna bay good luck with your ferrals
Totally agree with the summation from Geoff Dingle. Until people start to report the crimes, nothing will happen. The anonymous Crimestoppers number should have gone home with all the attendees as well as the Police Hotline numbers. It’s a really easy topic to stir up but if people won’t report, than nothing at all will happen. The police statistics won’t show up any problems and we’ll be left with the same police staffing ratio we started out with. I don’t agree with the concept that Police can do nothing. Their presence is enough to at least be a deterent.
All this kind of Forum really does is drop the value of house prices in an area. Why isn’t a local person the President of this action group anyway?
This crime forum is the same old chestnut which has been trotted out by conservative leaders in Port Stephen since time began. All it does is brand the community and send out message that ALL Anna Bays teenagers are feral . We saw it in Tanilba to the point that property prices actually fell as a result. MP Craig Baumann tried to use it repeatedly and over played his hand when everyone realized he was having lend of them and it back fired, his vote in the Tilligerry was the worst across Port Stephens in the last election.
The problems are multifaceted and in most cases there are problem parents to blame along with easy access to cheap alcohol. The police are part of the problem , they don’t do any community policing despite all the claims, hate getting out of their patrol cars and do not make submissions against additional liquor licenses. The clamor about jobs, things to do in Anna bay etc. are all just smoke and mirrors. The problem rests with a hand full of young people running rampant and allowed to get away with it, who just need to be hassled every Friday and Saturday night by police for a few months and the problem will start to disappear, or they will make a mistake to allow the police to arrest them.
We have always had problem children in the community but the problem is largely in the hands of the community, they don’t make reports because they argue they might be targeted, well guess what, if you do nothing you get nothing. Councillor Mackenzie railing against the law will achieve nothing either, and the outcome from all of angst is nothing. We should argue to bring back Neighborhood watch Committees and I will be saying this at Council on Tuesday night, Community Forums are just waste of energy and fire people up for all the wrong reasons, someone is very likely to end up hurt through all the hysteria generated, by doing something everyone will regret.
PSC Councillor Geoff Dingle