Plans for Flinders St injecting room overwhelmingly rejected by Victorians

New crime figures on Melbourne CBD’s drug epicentres have raised doubts over the Flinders St location of a proposed injecting room.

The majority of Victorians oppose putting a drug injecting room opposite Flinders Street Station.

New crime figures also reveal the likely injecting room site — which the state government bought for $40.3m — is not ground zero for drug offending in the city.

And some of Victoria’s biggest names in hospitality have joined calls to abandon putting the injecting room in the old Yooralla building near major attractions.

The government maintains it’s yet to settle on a preferred location with “multiple sites” still under consideration.

A poll commissioned by the Herald Sun found 55.9 per cent of Victorians oppose putting the injecting room opposite Flinders Street Station.

A similar proportion — 52.2 per cent — said it would make them less likely to shop and eat in the area.

The safe injecting room is likely to be housed on Flinders Street. Picture: Mark Stewart

Senior owners’ corporation manager Mark Laurence, who oversees a three-storey complex housing 10 businesses next to the site, said he feared a city injecting room would repeat problems seen with the first in North Richmond.

“Our stance is quite clear,’’ he said. “Don’t make another mistake before it’s too late.”

Bipartisan polling firm RedBridge – which surveyed 1484 Victorians – found just 35.8 per cent of Victorians supported an injecting room opposite Flinders Street Station.

But 47.4 per cent supported an injecting room somewhere in Melbourne’s CBD, compared with 46.6 per cent who did not. Concerns the facility would encourage drug use hurt the city economy and make the CBD less safe were the top reasons for those opposing it.

Police Association Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said the results reflected community sentiment.

“We’ve said for some time now that we stand with the community on this issue. Flinders Street is the wrong place to build an injecting room,’’ he said.

“We also said that when the government finds a community that wants this type of facility in their area, we will support it. We haven’t heard from such a community, nor do we expect to.

“The model adopted for the medically supervised injecting room at North Richmond hasn’t worked. To repeat that mistake in an area like Flinders Street would be catastrophic for traders, residents and visitors.”

Lord Mayor Sally Capp – who opposed a city injecting room proposed near Queen Victoria Market because it was too close to the tourist destination, vulnerable residents and would impact traders – said she held many similar concerns with the Flinders Street site.

“At this point in time our priority needs to be on bouncing back from the latest lockdown,’’ she said.

“We acknowledge that medically supervised injecting services save lives but any facility in the City of Melbourne can’t cost livelihoods.”

Crime Statistics Agency data analysing key intersections shows the likely Flinders Street site is not the city’s drug offending epicentre, with more offences near the corners of Spencer and Bourke streets and King and Flinders streets.

There were 161 offences for drug use, possession, dealing and trafficking within 250m of the Yooralla building in the year to March.

The intersection of Spencer and Bourke streets recorded 211 offences within the same radius — up massively on the previous year. The area around King and Flinders streets had 171 drug-related offences.

Its figures were consistently higher than near the Yooralla building over five years.

The North Richmond safe injecting room area had 337 drug offences – the highest figure in five years.

Heroin overdose figures have been used to support putting an injecting room in Flinders Street.

The likely injecting room site would adjoin Degraves Street, a popular tourist destination. Picture: Mark Stewart

In the five years to June 2020, a quarter of all overdoses in the CBD were within 250m of Elizabeth and Flinders streets — the worst hotspot.

A state government spokesman said the Yooralla building was a “valuable location” for a range of potential services – including health services.

“No decision has been made regarding the final location for the medically supervised injecting room and multiple sites remain under consideration by government,’’ he said.

“With around one person a month dying from heroin overdose in the City of Melbourne, CBD overdose call outs up 70 per cent, and a quarter of all CBD heroin overdoses within 250m of the Elizabeth St and Flinders St intersection – there is a real and growing need for a health facility of this kind in the central city.

“We use health data first and foremost, to determine which location will deliver the best health outcomes for the community.”

Opposition mental health spokeswoman Emma Kealy said the Flinders Street site had limited access for ambulances and a rear exit that would see drug-fuelled people wander straight on to Degraves Street.

Chapter House Coffee owner Natalie Schetzer said small businesses in the city were being destroyed. Picture: Mark Stewart

HARD-HIT CBD TRADERS SLAM INJECTING ROOM

Hospitality traders say that opening an injecting room near Flinders Street Station is the last thing that Melbourne needs after all the lockdowns.

Nightclub king and lord mayoral candidate Nick Russian said it was disgraceful that it was even being considered.

“It baffles me how anyone could think that this is going to be good for the CBD,” Mr Russian said.

“I cannot believe the stupidity to put that injecting room on Flinders St, and every single business operator I’ve spoken to is absolutely fuming.”

Mr Russian, who ran against Lord Mayor Sally Capp at last year’s election, said Ms Capp and the council must vigorously oppose the old Yooralla site for the injecting room.

“On top of that we’ve got the issue of the council getting rid of car lanes and parking spaces in Exhibition St to make way for bike lanes, which is also keeping people away from the city,” he said.

Cafe operator Johnny Sandish, of Xpressomondo in Degraves Street, fears for the business. Picture: Mark Stewart

City of Melbourne councillor Roshena Campbell said her personal view was that the evidence showed an injecting room would deter people from shopping and eating in the city.

“Our businesses have done it tough enough after four lockdowns,” she said.

“We need to bring people back. Anything that deters ­visitors is an act of economic sabotage by this state government.”

Ms Campbell was among a minority of councillors who tried unsuccessfully for the council to oppose an injecting room anywhere in the municipality.

Owner of eateries such as Chin Chin and Kisume, Chris Lucas, said it wasn’t just a case of the CBD being the wrong place for an injecting room.

“Based on the issues with (the existing facility in) Richmond, it’s clear that the concept of injecting rooms carries with it significant safety issues for surrounding residents, children and businesses,” Mr Lucas said.

“The government should run a poll with all CBD stakeholders and seek the views of the community before arrogantly pressing ahead with something that’s got little or no community support.”

A safe injecting room is likely to be housed on Flinders Street but the government maintains it’s yet to settle on a preferred site. Picture: Mark Stewart

Owner of Collins St restaurant The George, Greg Kahan, said putting an injecting room in the city made no sense.

“Why would they be spending that kind of money when we should be getting people back into the city for other reasons,” he said.

“It shouldn’t be anywhere in the CBD when we’ve gone through what we’ve gone through over the last 18 months.”

Guy Grossi, who co-owns Grossi Florentino in Bourke St, said injecting rooms were a good idea if they helped ­people.

“But we have to see if they really work or not,” he said.

“We have a broken city at the moment … and we need to rebuild it.”

Backing an injecting room for the city, Greens city councillor Olivia Ball recently said that an independent evaluation of the Richmond service showed “no evidence that the North Richmond injecting facility adversely impacted local amenity”.

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