MEMBER for Lismore Thomas George spent last Wednesday in Tenterfield and brought with him a host of police and government representatives in a further bid to reduce crime and engage kids.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The ‘working party’ group met for the second time with this month’s meeting turning its focus to the youth of Tenterfield.
Mr George said results from a Moombahlene Local Aboriginal Land Council survey would be pivotal as to how they begin to address concerns.
The survey queries kids about their interests and what they’d like to see improved in Tenterfield.
The land councils representative Helen Duroux was absent for the meeting and Mr George said the group would reconvene as soon as possible to address the findings.
“It’s no good us saying let’s do something, it’s for the youth to decide what they want,” Mr George said.
Police Inspector Garry Huard said since greater attention had been brought onto crime in Tenterfield they’d seen a drastic reduction.
“In terms of the number of offences being detected, we’re in single figures.
“We’ve seen a change overnight – that type of crime (break and enters) is just not occurring at the moment,” he said.
Later in the day Mr George and Tenterfield mayor Peter Petty hosted the latest Community Safety Precinct Committee meeting.
Officers, Inspectors and Crime Managers from the New England Local Area Command were present for the talks.
At the top of the agenda were recent crime figures.
Tenterfield figures remain steady or continue to decline in alcohol related violence, break and enter to dwelling and non-dwelling and property offences.
Inspector Stuart Grey used the meeting to highlight the ongoing issues with reporting of domestic violence.
He did spruik new changes to the way reporting works but conceded technical issues in making it a reality in Tenterfield still needed to be addressed.
That meeting was followed by discussions with representatives from education and family support services.
Again, children being the focus, the BackTrack youth program was touted as a possible venture to help get children out of trouble and active.
Mr George said he would explore whether it was viable to run the program in Tenterfield on a regular basis.
The next working party meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 2.
