Maranoa Regional Council votes to implement 12-month crime prevention program costing $100,000

Maranoa Regional Council has voted to hand a local group $100,000 to fix youth crime, despite not meeting with them to hash out a detailed plan.

After a recent spate of youth offending across the Maranoa region, councillors have forged ahead with a plan to tackle the problem by giving money to a community group for a youth development officer.

However some councillors argued against the “rushed” plan considering there has been no meeting with the group to run over the details.

At the May 10 Ordinary Meeting of Maranoa Regional Council, Mayor Tyson Golder said it was important for council to find solutions to reduce the youth crime and anti-social behaviour in the community.

He pitched to councillors they should hand the Roma Neighbourhood Watch Centre $100,000 to employ or contract a youth development officer on behalf of council where they would be on call 24-hours to support misbehaved youths.

Maranoa Regional Council Mayor Tyson Golder.

However, councillor Johanne Hancock said she was hesitant to hand over such a large amount of money for a motion where no letter or correspondence had been attached from the organisation.

Ms Hancock appealed to withhold the vote so councillors could speak with the Roma Neighbourhood Watch Centre before finalising the matter, however her request was lost in a vote 3-6.

“(We need) to have an urgent meeting with the Neighbourhood Watch Centre to talk to them and understand how they’re going to deliver this because I do actually support this, I just want to hear from them - $100,000 is a lot of money,” she said.

“I’d just like to hear from them directly. There is no representative here or a letter attached to this.”

She said there was no specific details of the programs that could be offered or where the gaps were in the current services.

Maranoa Region Councillor Johanne Hancock has been an avid volunteer and has worked within the community since first moving to Surat in 2001.

Councillors Wendy Taylor and Cameron O’Neil agreed with Ms Hancock’s comments that more details were needed.

“It seems to be another thing we rush through, get it done, ticked off,” Ms Taylor said.

“It’s just another thing that goes past at 100 miles an hour instead of thinking about it, talking about it.”

Mr O’Neil said it had been made very clear that youth crime needed to be dealt with on an “urgent basis” and a meeting with the Neighbourhood Watch Centre “could have been organised as quickly as tomorrow”.

“It’s ($100,000) been in the budget since June last year, we’re now in April,” he said.

“I think councillors could have been afforded some time to meet with them, I don’t think you’d find a councillor who doesn’t acknowledge there is a crime problem with a particular age demographic at the moment.

“$100,000 is a huge amount of ratepayers’ money and I think if you had supported us to meet with the Neighbourhood Watch Centre it would have been a 9-0 vote.”

Mr Golder said youth crime was “more urgent than having more meetings”.

“We can start focusing on reducing crime and giving these kids a vision on somewhere to head, which is not stealing cars and doing things not in their own best interest,” he said.

The motion to hand the Roma Neighbourhood Watch Centre $100,000 to employ or contract a youth development officer on behalf of council to combat youth crime was carried with a 6-3 vote.