Mayor concedes crime-prone CBD street needs redesign

A “disgustingly non-functional” centrepiece street in the Cairns CBD could receive another facelift just three years after a $10.5m renovation.

A “DISGUSTINGLY non functional” centrepiece street in the Cairns CBD could receive another facelift just three years following a $10.5m renovation.

It has been conceded the area was attracting crime and the council had not got the design “100 per cent right”.

Shields St business owners between Abbott and Lake streets have been calling for action for months, saying the strip had become overrun by young offenders and itinerants due to dim lighting and hiding spots.

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The issue raised its head again at a chamber of commerce meeting featuring three of the city’s top police officers who revealed recommendations had been made to Cairns Regional Council to improve the site.

Cairns Mayor Bob Manning said the council had long realised the area had “not turned out the way we wanted it to turn out”.

He said nearby works on the Esplanade dining precinct could be further extended to address problems in the block which included “overdone landscaping” and “underdone lighting”.

“When we create a feature we do it to make things more beautiful and safer,” he said.

“We haven’t got that 100 per cent right yet.

“I would think there is no reason we can’t look at those things. While we’re there, we’re not going to miss out on Shields St.”

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Vocal Shields St business owner Gayle Allen, who led the campaign for improvements, said five large lights – understood to be worth around $100,000 each – had not worked since the first wet season, leaving the area shrouded in near darkness at night.

She worried all the attention was on the Esplanade dining precinct and her area had been forgotten.

Ms Allen said the original design had been “beautiful”, but the end result was not.

“It is disgustingly non-functional and a place at the end of the day people don’t want to be around,” she said.

“For a tourist town we just need to clean it up. It just needs to come alive and no one is going to come in until council rejuvenates it.”

Cairns police acting Insp Gary Hunter said the recommendations he had made included better lighting, landscaping and closing power sources.

“We definitely know at times (the area) can be problematic,” he said.

“I think there is room for improvement, definitely.”

The block’s tenants have struggled, both pre and post COVID with only Ms Allen’s cafe Frydays and the Woolshed nightclub open their full trading hours during the week on the northern side of the street. Ms Allen said she had previously surveyed Shields St businesses all the way through to Grafton St and they had all been in favour of a design change.

Originally published as Mayor concedes crime-prone CBD street needs redesign