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Pictured: Whyalla Mayor Lyn Breuer with parks and gardens officer Tyson James in October last year after trees were damaged in Civic Park. Below: Council officers meet with police at Civic Park in October to discuss security measures.
Whyalla Mayor Lyn Breuer has paid tribute to Council staff, police and the Federal Government after the city scored a major win in its campaign to stamp out vandalism and make it an even safer place to live.
Federal Member for Grey, Rowan Ramsey recently announced the City of Whyalla had secured a $364,557 grant from Round 2 of the Safer Communities Fund for a project to install more lighting and security cameras in Civic Park.
“The grant will enable Council to install CCTV and lighting in the park which will increase safety and help reduce crime,” Mr Ramsey said.
“The lighting and cameras will make it safer in the community to use this public space and provide useful footage for police in the event of criminal activity.
“Three hundred and sixty thousand dollars is a very solid contribution and comes on the back of a long string of projects in the city that the Federal Government has backed.”
The application for this funding was submitted by Council following another outbreak of vandalism in Civic Park late last year where trees were snapped and the Council depot and public toilets were vandalised.
Mayor Lyn Breuer consequently met with police and Council staff at Civic Park in October to discuss security options for the park. From this meeting came an understanding between Council and police to streamline the reporting process for incidents of vandalism and a lighting and camera surveillance plan was formulated by Council IT staff.
These consequent police reports, together with the lighting and surveillance plan, went into the successful application for the Safer Communities Fund grant application. The funding will go towards 40 new lighting towers and seven CCTV security cameras in Civic Park.
“This is a great outcome for our city and a great example of what can be achieved by working together in the community,” Mayor Breuer said.
“Council staff have worked hard to diligently report these issues to the police, the police have helped our IT department with the security plan and our infrastructure department has pulled it all together to get to this point where we have this valuable funding.
“These lights and cameras will go a long to making Civic Park an ever safer place at night while also discouraging vandalism.”
City of Whyalla staff will continue to report incidents of vandalism and Council will now work on extending the "stamp out vandalism" campaign to include community input.
At last month’s ordinary council meeting, Councillor Tom Antonio suggested a media-based plan to create more awareness of the problem of vandalism in our community. With a suggested title of “Stop, Care and Report”, the extension of the Council’s campaign against vandalism would encourage people in the community to report vandalism.
Cr Antonio moved a motion to launch this specific campaign and slogan which was passed unanimously by the elected members.
Incidents of vandalism to public property can be reported to Council via the My Local Services app, by email or by calling Council. See below.
IF YOU NEED TO REPORT SOMETHING:
Residents can make complaints, report issues and give feedback on Council-controlled matters by downloading the My Local Services app http://www.lga.sa.gov.au/page.aspx?u=4099 or your phone or tablet.
Download the FREE app and press the “report it” button to bring up an easy-to-fill-out form. You can also include pictures with this form. This app has many other features, like a message system to remind you to put your bins out, to keep you informed on many council services and news.
Alternatively you can use the customer enquiry form on our wwww.whyalla.sa.gov.au website or email direct council@whyalla.sa.gov.au. You can also come into the Civic Building offices during business hours or call 8640 3444 any time of the day.