New community engagement group aims to ease tensions over North Richmond injecting room
Improving safety in the area and calming tensions over the North Richmond safe injecting facility will be key priorities for a new engagement group. Here’s how to get involved.
Victoria
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Former top cop Ken Lay will lead a new group to help ease tensions linked to the North Richmond safe injecting facility.
Mr Lay will co-chair a committee that will guide a program of community engagement activities with the input of three local reference groups.
A recent City of Yarra report was scathing over the lack of proper community engagement involving the injecting facility amid conflicting views over its operations and significant concern about drug use in the area.
The new North Richmond Precinct Community Committee will focus on “issues of importance” for the local area and advise on opportunities to boost skills and nurture community leadership.
Expressions of interest are being called for the reference groups, which will look at things like safety, neighbourhood amenity, economic revitalisation and health and wellbeing.
State Housing Minister Richard Wynne said: “Locals know their community needs better than anyone else, and local representation is vital to making this process work – ensuring the best outcome for the precinct.
“I encourage anyone wanting to contribute to the future of North Richmond to be a part of this process.”
Improving North Richmond’s local amenity was identified as a key issue in the recent independent review of the first two years of the injecting room trial.
On Thursday, a man and a woman were seen openly injecting heroin in Abbotsford, some 500m from the injecting facility.
The woman appeared to be behaving erratically, including throwing a screwdriver at parked cars.
Residents called police, who searched the couple, and paramedics also attended the scene.
Cochair with Mr Lay on the new committee is former EPA chair Cheryl Batagol.
The committee and reference groups will help advise on strategies for neighbourhood renewal projects worth $3 million.
Residents and businesses will have a say in the design of local projects in coming months.
A separate Safe and Liveable Victoria St project worth $241,000 will deliver a number of safety and infrastructure upgrades for the precinct in Richmond such as deterring criminal and anti-social behaviour between Hoddle and Church streets.
Mr Lay, a former Victoria Police Commissioner, also heads a project for a second supervised injecting room, to be located in the City of Melbourne.
The government’s preferred site is near the Queen Victoria Market in Victoria St, but Melbourne City Council is opposed to that location.
It’s expected to be a major council election issue, with a Labor Party-endorsed team supporting the Victoria Street site.
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