Greystanes: Benaud St laneway should stay open, police say
Police have ruled out the need for a laneway, used as a shortcut to a shopping centre and schools, to close at Greystanes.
Parramatta
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Greystanes residents who want a Benaud St laneway to stay open have spoken up despite a smaller group of neighbours constantly requesting Cumberland Council to shut it.
Residents such as Terry Tisdale and his partner Denise Walsh urged the council to close the street’s eastern lane because they are fed up with drunk people stumbling through and covering the fence with graffiti.
The lane connects Benaud St to Cumberland Rd and is used as a short cut to reach Greystanes Inn, the shopping centre and for children to reach Greystanes Public School, without walking along the busy Merrylands Rd.
Ms Walsh, who lives in a different house to her partner, has lived in the street for 20 years and said she had also experienced problems at Benaud St Park.
“In that 20 years, the amount of problems that have stemmed from that lane have been horrendous,’’ she said.
“I don’t sleep at night. Friday and Saturday nights are horrendous, the amount of (foot) traffic that comes through the lane from the hotel up into the park, it’s terrible.
“Many nights I’ve heard girls screaming in the park. I don’t know whether they’re being raped, I don’t know what’s going on. I go out to see if they’re OK and I get abused.
“It’s terrible and it hasn’t stopped.”
George Sattout, whose Cumberland Rd property is on the lane, has also experienced problems.
“I would like to have it shut because I’ve suffered over the last 40 years, especially at night,’’ he said.
“Young kids swearing, knocking the fence. I had to fix my own fence so many times.”
But a police letter tabled at a recent council meeting showed there was little crime reported in the street.
Cumberland police said there were 14 recorded incidents in Benaud St since 2017, including a break and enter, but there was no direct evidence the offender used the laneway.
The letter also found the Greystanes Inn did not contribute to the laneway.
Most residents have supported the call to keep the lane open.
After council feedback in August, 67 per cent of 108 submissions supported the lane to stay
open.
A resident, who did not want to be named, wants the lane to stay open.
“There’s only a handful that want it shut,’’ she said.
“It’s used all the time to go to the shops, the bus stop, church and the community centre.”
Another neighbour who lives near the lane dismissed any criminal activity on the site.
“We don’t have any criminal activity,’’ the woman, who also declined to be named, said.
“I’ve got children. If I had any problems in the laneway I would be the first to go to council to close it.’’
Residents say the lane, which opened in the 1980s, attracted trouble but problems decreased since the council made the lane an alcohol-free zone about 10 years ago.
The council recently agreed to assess measures such as timed gates that would block the lane from 10pm to 6am.
Ms Walsh said she and Mr Tisdale would support purchasing the lane off the council because she does not think gates would deter pedestrians.
“I understand people like the convenience of being able to walk to the shops; it’s close but surely people’s security in their own homes has precedence over that,’’ she said.
● The Parramatta Advertiser reported on the western lane, on the opposite side of Benaud St, in July.