Parkes Shire Council is becoming increasingly concerned at the level of vandalism around the community and is looking at ways of overcoming the huge cost of replacement.
Cameras mounted around the town is one of many options being considered.
Director of Operations, Steve Barry told a recent council meeting that vandalism in and around Cooke Park in successive weeks had been ‘significant.’
‘In one incident, two light poles, one light, 33 sprinklers heads, and 24 plants were damaged or removed.
‘The estimate cost of repairs and/or replacement was over $8,000’, he said.
‘The cost of the vandalism warrants investigation into monitoring equipment that could be used at various locations where high levels of vandalism occur.’
‘This is an ongoing thing, but these recent weeks have been horrific. The poles were bent, the lights smashed.
‘The swimming pool has also been broken into several times and flags pulled down and thrown into the water.
‘The cost is really getting out of hand. We are not possibly as bad as some other areas, but it is quite significant for us.
‘I think it is time we looked at monitoring equipment, cameras that can be moved to different locations.’
It was also pointed out to the meeting that sprinklers at other locations around town had also been damaged, at a cost of $4,000.
It was also stressed that police often know who carry out the vandalism but can not ‘pin them on it.’
Cr Ken McGrath said council should act immediately to resolve the situation.
‘Cameras would reduce the vandalism and I think they would pay for themselves fairly quickly.
‘We should have done this a long time ago. We’ve really left it too late.’
Mayor Ken Keith said CCTV had been a success in the main streets of other centres.
‘But the cost is a concern, they are not cheap’ he added.
‘We do not have the money in the budget at the moment. I think it would be wise to investigate the cost of cameras, whether they are mobile or permanent.’
Cr McGrath agreed, but stressed it should be done ‘straight away.’
‘Maybe we could put cameras in the Services Club across the road.
‘The taxi rank has cameras so there must be some money available for this type of thing.’
Mr Barry said the types of cameras he was envisaging were about $2,000 to $3,000 in cost.
‘I’m not referring to cameras worth $200,000, $300,000 – we just can’t afford that.’
Council was told that Forbes had installed CCTV which had worked well, but that there were also legal aspects which had to be dealt with.’
It was also pointed out that there was a continuing high cost involved with monitoring the cameras.
Council eventually resolved to check into the costs of cameras and the possible legal ramifications which needed to be dealt with – and also to check with Forbes council on the cost of its system and whether it had received special funding.
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