By AIDAN KNIGHT

 

LATROBE City Council has voted to postpone the implementation of the proposed Community Connectors program within Morwell.

This is a government initiative utilised in areas experiencing significant challenges in community safety and wellbeing.

These are issues that often have a ripple effect on local political and business environments, and Latrobe City is looking to mitigate the risk of seeing the municipality of Morwell suffering as a result.

The decision to table the program’s use in Latrobe City for further review was made at council’s May meeting at Kernot Hall on Monday, May 26 despite the proven track record in Frankston, improving conditions (that have earned the locality a rough reputation over recent years) where many other initiatives had failed.

Data collected from 2018 to 2021 shows Morwell suffered a 16.3 per cent retail vacancy rate, close to three times the healthy standard of five to seven per cent.

Specific areas of the town suffer more than others, with the northern precinct displaying close to 30 per cent of shopfronts empty, an obvious and unfortunate reflection of the current situation’s effects on the community.

The public attributes this to their concerns surrounding the rising rates of crime, vandalism, and other varied anti-social behaviours. Prominent Morwell businessman, Ray Burgess spoke about this at the March council meeting.

This was mirrored by Budgeree Ward Cr Potter’s comments during the May 26 meeting, stating, “we see an incident in the Morwell CBD every day”.

Councillors Potter, Steph Morgan and Darren Howe were very pro-implementation of the Community Connectors Program.

The implementation of the program would see council seeking funding from state and federal bodies, as well as potential partners such as V/Line.

The proposed motion moved by Cr Morgan was to allocate up $50,000 to resource the first wave of research involved in the program as part of the End Of Year Result Budget Review process, but was lost to Cr Sharon Gibson’s proposed alternative motion that the report be deferred pending receipt of feedback from the Minister for Police and Community Safety (whom she had met with alongside Latrobe City Mayor, Dale Harriman).

This was quickly followed by an amendment put forward by Cr Howe that everyone thought reasonable, in which the report be deferred no later than the September council meeting, so as to minimise the risk of the situation in Morwell worsening and ensure that the residents felt their concerns were still being addressed.

The Community Connectors program is only effective in the prevention of incidents, rather than combatting them.

The model utilised in the city of Frankston displayed a drop in police callouts to the CBD by 30 per cent within the first 12 months of it’s implementation.

The Morwell Activity Centre Plan (MACP) economic assessment shows an alarming $89 million in local spending has moved away from Morwell businesses.