By Oliver Lees
Susan Vulling wants to see Romsey Skate Park kept clean for the sake of her children and the community.
In recent weeks, Ms Vulling and other members of the Romsey community have found broken glass and syringes at the park.
As well as featuring a playground, the park also provides a thoroughfare to the Romsey Primary School and Romsey Kindergarten.
Ms Vulling, a mother of three children, said this is not the first time this issue has reared its head.
In February, about 70 community members attended a meeting organised by Macedon Ranges council in response to frequent incidents of broken glass scattered on the park’s footpaths and near its play areas.
Ms Vulling said it had been a productive meeting, where council and Romsey Police had agreed to employ additional measures to stamp out the safety hazard.
Council agreed to increase cleaning of the site and also installed an additional CCTV camera to monitor activity at the park after dark, and that they would share that footage with the police.
But Ms Vulling said with the easing of restrictions, more broken glass and some discarded syringes had been spotted at the public space.
“My biggest concern is the hazard it poses to the community, particularly preschool to school-aged children,” she said.
Ms Vulling said she was encouraged by the efforts of council to address the issue, but couldn’t accept the unsafe conditions for Romsey’s children.
“At times this is a daily problem. Ideally, I’d like to see the root cause of it solved. I understand it’s not the majority of people [causing this problem], maybe just a small group of six to 12 young people.
“But if we can’t solve it, given it’s a colocation where kids are present, it needs to be cleaned up daily.”
Macedon Ranges council assets and operations director Shane Walden the area is now cleaned on a daily basis, including broken glass.
“Council reviews [CCTV] footage when an incident is reported or where criminal behaviour is suspected. Footage is provided to Victoria Police on request,” Mr Walden said.
Mr Walden said syringe disposal units would be installed in the toilets in the coming weeks, and that the Lancefield-Romsey Lions Club had recently received a $32,000 grant to design a new skate park with community engagement.
“We encourage the community to immediately report any unsafe, illegal and/or antisocial behaviour to the police, and report any damage at the park to the council,” he said.
Romsey Police was contacted for comment.
