Beenleigh retailers close doors to get away from methadone clinic
At least six business owners in the Beenleigh CBD have announced they are closing down and walking away from the precinct as a rampant crime spree leaves them at breaking point. They blame a nearby drug rehab clinic for the spike in crime.
Logan
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THIEVES who were possibly looking for drugs and carried out two break-ins over the weekend have sealed the fate of a group of southside businesses.
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Traders in Beenleigh CBD have slated this Thursday as their point of no return and will shut up shop and leave the area.
Police said the thugs forced open the rear window of the Alex Bratic Dentist on City Rd on Friday and tried to get into the next-door building via a rear shed.
They also attempted to break into one of Beenleigh’s best-known cafes, Zambeze’s.
They returned to the dentist clinic to turn over the premises again on Saturday night between midnight and 3am.
Police said investigations were continuing with officers checking CCTV footage and evaluating forensic evidence but so far, nobody has been charged.
More than 40 Beenleigh businesses have been broken into over the past six months with a spike over the past week, when more than four businesses around City Rd were broken into.
The businesses have complained to Logan City Council and state MPs that crime in the area was causing financial and emotional stress for traders already struggling with town degradation and the coronavirus shut downs.
A group of traders formed an alliance in January and called for a drug and alcohol clinic, which offers methadone rehabilitation, to be moved out of City Rd.
Angry Beenleigh businesses took to Facebook on the weekend to vent after the latest spate of break-ins blaming poor town planning, bad government decision making, a lack of action against undesirable elements and also COVID-19.
Jeweller Natalia Tormasi said she would shut shop and move on Thursday after nearly 15 years trading from her City Rd premises.
She said at least 10 other traders would follow suit, once their leases ran out before the end of the financial year.
“I am not the first business to leave the area because of the crime and the methadone clinic and I certainly won’t be the last,” she said.
“As all our leases are coming up, we are picking up our businesses and running out of town.
“We won’t be offered any government grants to help us relocate our businesses nor will we be shown any sympathy from the office of the federal MP Bert van Manen or Logan City councillor Karen Murphy.
“The dentist across the road from me was broken into twice on the weekend and I have been confronted with a client from the methadone clinic twice in the past week.
“City Rd is at crisis point which is exactly what we were trying to warn Bert van Manen about and he called us hysterical.
“How could he give $600,000 of government money to assist a methadone clinic in the centre of town near general businesses?”
Ms Tormasi said community consultation was the only way to save the town and said throwing money at drug rehabilitation businesses would not solve the problem.
She said the traders believed their complaints to Mr van Manen, state MP Melissa McMahon and Logan City Council had not been recognised.
Traders said they would be making their opinion known at the October state election in which Mr van Manen’s wife, Judi is an LNP candidate for the state seat of Macalister.
Mr van Manen said services such as the drug and alcohol clinic were “here to change lives” and said referring to it as a methadone clinic was “negatively stigmatising” people who needed help.
“While I sympathise with the argument for another location for Pharmaceutical Rehabilitation Services (PRS), the range of services they provide is absolutely vital to this community,” he said.
“It’s important to remember that PRS fulfilled all local and state government requirements prior to opening and continue to conduct their business in a manner that complies with those approvals.”
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Logan City Council has earmarked $5 million for Beenleigh streetscaping, which traders said would help but not solve the problem.
PRS owner Lachlan Foord said his business, which opened in City Rd, Beenleigh, in May 2018, provided a much-needed and unique medical service.
He said it was the only clinic in Logan where patients with Hepatitis A, B, or C, can be referred to a gastroenterologist and hepatologist.
Clinicians at the clinic can run tests and then refer patients to the clinic’s specialist
who will bulk bill anyone with a valid Medicare number.
“Private health insurance is not needed,” Mr Foord said.
“This is a major breakthrough for Logan to have a dual Specialty Consultant Physician bulk billing in private practice.”
Traders will meet with State ALP MP for Macalister Melissa McMahon at 4.30pm.