At last Thursday’s council meeting, Councillor John Tramby submitted a notice of motion about council’s role in helping to reduce the shire’s crime.

“I believe we as a council should be taking a greater leading role and be more involved other than meeting with organisations at the safety meeting,” Cr Tramby said to his fellow councillors.

“There are things I believe only we can do as a council.

“There are programs in Dubbo and Kempsey that have similar social problems to us but we’re not getting them.”

Cr Tramby believes council needs to develop a policy on their role and responsibility regarding crime, and that they need to stop paying for state or federal government programs and initiatives that they’re not being compensated for.

“For example the needle program,” he said.

“There’s no benefit, no compensation to us as a council to pick these needles up.

“We need to get reimbursed or compensated by the state government for picking up their problem.

“This cost shifting should stop.

“The same with our CCTV cameras. Most are put in with grants but we have to maintain them.

“We’re doing the work other departments should be doing.

“Many other things need to be looked at that only we can do as a council.

“A report was done by the engineering department on the amount of damage being done to our town; it’s hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Cr Tramby believes the solution is education.

“I believe it is unacceptable that when a child plays up, they are sent out of school for two or three weeks.

“That means when they come back they are behind their peers and the problem is accelerated.

“These children need tutoring because when they get behind in education, they play up even more.

“There are kids in this town nine years old who can’t read.

“There’s a girl my daughter mentors and she can’t add up – she’s 12.

“Schools have to accept responsibility to educate our children and I believe that is lacking.”

Cr Tramby said another issue is that many organisations don’t have real incentives to reduce the crime rate because their funding is reduced if they meet their targets.

“We need to reverse the role of funding for these organiations, so success doesn’t mean they lose their job,” he said.

“We’ve got to be better, stronger with our local problem.

“We’ve got to set parametres.”

Cr Tramby’s notice of motion was seconded by Cr Kerry Cassells who said she agrees “wholeheartedly”.

“A lot of people want to have some place where they can go and get things done and be reactive,” she said.

“Our community safety committee is a really good one; we’re going to have a sub-committee of that committee.

“As a council I think we have a bigger role and can ber very active.”

Councillors resolved to develop a policy on their role and responsibility in regards to the high crime rate, as well as adopt a long-term plan to reduce the crime rate to a level equal to or lower than the state average on all types of crime committed within the shire.

They will hold a workshop of interested councillors and staff to formulate council’s response and long-term plan to assist the relevant welfare organisations involved within the community and stimulate those which need some encouragement.

Council will also look to involve a cross-section of the community to assist and be an active participant in the process.