Bega Valley Shire Council has ruled out installing CCTV in Bega to combat acts of vandalism in the town.
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The statement came after vandals rampaged through Bega on December 1.
Overnight, the Bega Sporting Complex’s female public toilets were damaged including cisterns broken as well as graffiti and faeces being spread through the facility.
In addition, mature trees in the Gipps St car park were snapped and broken glass was strewn along Carp St, Ayres Walkway and Littleton Gardens.
A council spokesperson said the cost of the repairs and clean up from the incident totalled $1780.
In the aftermath, an idea raised by members in the community was to install CCTV in town, but council said there were no current plans in place to bring in such technology.
“Council has at times in the past considered the implementation of CCTV with barriers being the cost of installation, maintenance and monitoring; the limited usefulness of preventing perpetrators in real time, the limited usefulness as evidence for prosecution and the lack of obvious and unique sites where vandalism occurs,” the council spokesperson said.
The spokesperson suggested other steps that could be taken to reduce acts of vandalism.
“There are a number of things that can be done including greater education on the financial impacts of vandalism and intrinsically the importance of the public reporting its occurrence at the time it is witnessed to police (if in fact it is witnessed),” they said.
“[Also] parents and families keeping track of youth and their activities and harsher penalties for those convicted of vandalism (particularly repeat offenders).”
Last week, when Bega Valley Shire Mayor Kristy McBain was asked about her opinion on using CCTV to prevent vandalism she said within some of council’s precincts it had almost become a necessity.
“Council doesn’t want to spend a great deal of money monitoring our community,” she said.
But if vandalism was to continue, she said, that was an option council may need to take.
Albert McKnight
Journalist at Bega District News.
Journalist at Bega District News.
