Armed robbery triggers Beenleigh rescue plan as Jobseeker end looms

A terrifying armed robbery was a trigger for a southside community to hatch a rescue plan to save their town from ruin.

Beenleigh has been plagued by claims about crime and drugs; a car left on City Rd; below; the Hookah store in City Rd, where staff were threatened with a gun.

A plan to save a major southside town from turning into a backwater has been hatched ahead of next month’s move to wind back federal government COVID supplement payments.

More than 150 people joined forces this week to map out the way forward for Beenleigh and salvage its reputation, sullied by drugs, crime, and a shabby high street.

The town of about 10,000 has wrestled with the claims, many of which have targeted a local drug and alcohol centre and a historic shopping arcade, left to rack and ruin and vacant for three years.

City Rd, where there have been complaints about crime and drugs.

It was the first time, politicians from both sides of the political divide and from all three tiers of government have collaborated at a public forum to listen to residents’ concerns and thrash out ideas for the future.

The crowd heard solutions including a $5 million scheme to beautify the town square with special shade sails, street seating and art work, along with moves to engage businesses and residents and bring them back into the main trade centre.

An artist’s opinion of the revamped City Rd.

One of the main ideas was for Logan City Council to promote Beenleigh as the region’s major business activity area giving it precedence over other shopping precincts such as Holmview.

Police have denied there is a crime problem in the area but some local businesses say otherwise and cite an exodus of more than 20 small operators from the town centre in two years.

The final straw came last week, when three people walked into a newly-opened tobacco and vaping hookah store on the main street and threatened staff with a what is believed to be a gun.

Two Beenleigh men were charged with armed robbery offences in relation to the incident at the City Rd store after a police raid on a house in the town allegedly found ammunition.

The armed robbery, which scared the “bejesus” out of the store owner, was a trigger to launching the rescue plan and meeting, organised by federal LNP MP Bert van Manen.

The City Rd Hookah Store which was held up last week.

Mr van Manen told the crowd, the town’s prospects were improving and said when the COVID packages were wound back next month, businesses would no longer struggle to find workers.

“We are very cognisant of the risks with JobKeeper and Jobseeker coming off at the end of March,” he said.

“In particular Jobseeker and it’s going to be a real balancing act because there are families who have benefited greatly from it who have previously struggled and it allowed them to improve their finances, get some family matters in order.

“The flip side is, and this is the difficult part of the equation, as we get to the end of March – how to balance the need to get people back into work.”

Federal MP Bert van Manen addresses the crowd in Beenleigh with a panel of state MP Melissa McMahon (Macalister); Logan Council councillors Karen Murphy and Jon Raven and Beenleigh police officers.

Logan City deputy mayor Jon Raven said the council was not going to give up or declare Beenleigh a “dead duck”.

“It’s our job to keep trying to return Beenleigh to the great town it once was,” he said.

“Council has made an effort to protect Beenleigh – we’ve had developers such as Lawrence Lancini who want to develop precincts just up the road because they don’t want to go into Beenleigh.

“But if we let that growth happen outside the centre, it would destroy Beenleigh forever by creating a little new and shiny satellite up the road and all the businesses will go there.

“So under our planning scheme, Beenleigh is earmarked as a major business activity centre and council actively protects that status.”

Logan resident Belinda Thompson said spending an additional $5 million to beautify Beenleigh would not solve the problem which she said stemmed from drugs and clients attending a nearby rehabilitation clinic.

“The governments have already spent $14 million on the Town Square, which is a failure,” she said.

“It is not about the service at the PRS drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic – it is locating that service in the CBD that is the problem.”

Beenleigh jeweller Natalia Tormasi, who shut her City Rd shop last year, said she believed a drug-fuelled crime wave was ruining the city’s reputation and prospects.

“This is exactly why I closed,” she said.

“When valuable, successful businesses have been run out of town, landlords are desperate to lease their commercial spaces and charge lower rents.”

Last year, Zarraffa’s closed its store in Beenleigh along with a mass exodus from the Beenleigh Marketplace of Sanity, ANZ and the closure of long-time restaurant Serrano’s

Along with crime and community safety, residents said they were concerned about dangerous intersections, traffic, protection of the environmentally significant Eagleby Wetlands and youth justice.

Other issues raised were a 7-Eleven service station being built at Mt Warren Park and upgrading the Beenleigh transit station.

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