It has been some time since I posted anything so I thought I should post the report on the conference which was tabled at Council last night. The conference contained a lot of useful information and I will follow up on some of the issues that came up.
I attended the conference together with Cr Betteridge and Ms H Webster. The conference was held on Tuesday and Wednesday 4th and 5th June 2013 at the Windsor Hotel, Spring St., Melbourne.
The conference focussed generally on four issues, viz. safety, alcohol, CCTV and graffiti and the inter-relationships between each of these. As with all conferences there was a great deal of variability between speakers and presentations but, overall, the conference was valuable in my opinion.
There was no simple answer to any of the questions relating to alcohol management, violence, community safety and the use of CCTV but a number of useful insights were gained. They will help me to form my decisions and may be useful to Council in policy development and formulation. In the report I will group the information by subject matter.
Alcohol Management
There were presentations for the City of Sydney, Stonnington (Chapel Street), Blacktown (Mt Druitt), Sunshine Coast, Wagga Wagga and Auckland. It is clear that Albury is doing well in this area compared to others but some interesting points were made.
Chapel St has a saturation of licensed premises with one every 50m on both sides of the street for a distance of 2 km. This led to changes to the Planning Scheme in February 2012 and a permanent cap on licensed premises with a capacity of more than 200 people allowed to operate after 1 am. It is clear from this and other premises that a concentration of licensed premises in a small area leads to significant anti-social behaviour.
The use of ID scanners and CCTV was mentioned. At some venues the “door staff” had a small remote that could be discreetly activated to capture footage of a patron who would be advised that this had been done and this could be sent wirelessly to other venues. This may be of use given the agreement to introduce a “group banning” policy at venues in Albury.
The City of Sydney has similar problems in Kings Cross and George Street but is focussed on bringing other activities into the areas to lessen the impact of drinking. The measures include introducing food vans, lighting “dark” places and running other outdoor events. The city has produced Open Sydney: Draft Strategy and Action Plan 2012 – 2030 which contains a lot of ideas concerning the night – time economy. The strategy was developed in conjunction with Dr Phil Hadfield who operates a research and training consultancy in the field of alcohol and drugs in Leeds, UK.
Wagga Wagga results are significantly worse than Albury and have shown little improvement over the last few years. Wagga Wagga utilised a training programme called Safer Bars run by the Australian licensee, Bar Guardians
The issue of pre-loading was raised in almost every presentation and this seems to be an almost intractable problem. One suggestion made was that when police intervene and ask where a person had their last drink they should also ask where the person purchased their first drink and where did they consume their first drink This would provide an opportunity to quantify the extent and significance of pre-loading which is, at the moment, only known anecdotally.
Perhaps a survey could be conducted outside licensed premises where patrons could be asked to answer a few short questions. A small prize could be used as an incentive to participate in the survey.
Key points and resources – alcohol management
· Open Sydney: Draft Strategy and Action Plan 2012 – 2030
· Shared radio frequency and SMS communication strategy between venues
· Use of CCTV at venue entrances and ability to share footage (privacy concerns?)
· Promotion of alcohol (happy hour, discounted drinks, etc) in venues was seen as a significant risk factor with respect to violence both inside and outside the premises.
· Gain statistics on pre-loading so that we know accurately the extent of the problem.
CCTV
My conclusion after all the presentations is that CCTV does not make an area safer but it does assist in post – incident investigations by providing the opportunity to identify possible suspects. This was the conclusion of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal in the case of SF vs Shoalhaven City Council. It is expensive to set up and requires significant ongoing funding for maintenance and upgrades.
Monitoring is a huge cost burden and most councils who presented no longer, or never have, monitored their cameras on a continuous basis. Examples were given of police monitoring but generally this was limited to having a display in a police station that would be passively monitored by a duty officer. It would be rare to detect an incident in real time.
Key points - CCTV
· A useful tool but clearly not the answer to all ills and comes with a big cost for equipment and monitoring.
· Significant privacy issues in NSW
· Maribyrnong Council will present a report on CCTV use in August
Graffiti
It is clear to me that Albury is doing very well in this area. The message seems to be that you need to clean it up as quickly as possible because it attracts others. Gold Coast City Council policy is to remove offensive graffiti on the same day it is reported and other graffiti by the next working day. It costs GCCC $1.5 million per annum and they spend $600k removing graffiti from private property at no direct cost to the ratepayer. Last year they distributed 500 graffiti removal kits (each cost $27). They have artists produce art work on laminate to be stuck on things such as signal control boxes and power distribution boxes to avoid the occupational health issues of working outdoors and in proximity to traffic.
An interesting point made in a later presentation (about terrorism) was to look at graffiti and see if it contains any “messages” that may be significant.
While at the conference I inspected Union Lane (between Bourke Street Mall and Little Collins Street. The area had been lit and both walls were covered in authorised graffiti. It was once a dark and dingy lane full of litter but it now looks terrific in my opinion. Melbourne City Council will also allow two artists Rone and Phibs to paint graffiti in Hosier Lane (between Flinders Street and Flinders Lane) as part of the Age’s Forever Curious Campaign.
Key issues – graffiti
· Rapid clean-up.
· Use of artwork to cover “targets”.
· Consider allowing authorised graffiti art in laneways and public spaces to be done under supervision (see Union Lane and Hosier Lane in Melbourne CBD).
Community safety
This was a huge area and presented some innovative ideas that may not be directly relevant to the day to day operations of Albury City but could provide the opportunity for mentoring and sponsorship to achieve long term attitudinal changes.
There was a disturbing presentation from Professor Greg Barton of Monash University concerning recent terrorism incidents around the world. In his opinion it is “not if but when” for Australia. A Councillor from Glen Eira described the high concentration of synagogues and Jewish schools in their local government area who all have guards. The take home message is that we need to consider the possibility of such incidents in our emergency planning.
There were several papers that looked at the issues of risky behaviour including use of alcohol and drugs and even risky sexual behaviour by young people. While the latter is not in Council’s purview, we could be involved in programmes that look at changing behaviour in the other areas.
Trinity Grammar at Kew has produced a book called “the Trinity Parent’s Drug and Alcohol Resource Book” and it was launched by the psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg and Professor John Toumbourou, who holds the Chair in Health Psychology at Deakin University. Albury City may be able to promote this to schools in partnership with a local sponsor such as a service club.
Professor Toumbourou is the CEO of Communities that Care Ltd which is a collaboration between the Royal Children’s Hospital, the Murdoch Institute, Deakin University, the University of Washington and the Rotary Club of Melbourne. It looks at evidence based research concerning youth and risk – taking behaviour, especially in the areas of drugs, alcohol and sexual behaviour. The aim is to intervene to prevent youths from getting into these areas. There are a number of programmes running under this umbrella, including one at Myrtleford. There may be an opportunity for Albury City to sponsor a programme with a suitable partner or partners.
Key issues – community safety
· Emergency planning that considers terrorism.
Conclusion
The two day conference represented good value for money and met the criteria for councillor attendance. There are a number of initiatives that Council could pursue that would enhance the status and reputation of council in the eyes of the community and which could provide significant long term benefits to the community.
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