Sunday, November 10, 2024

Townsville battles repeat vandalism attacks

Townsville City Council is facing a damage bill of more than $5,000 after vandals attacked public toilets at Pallarenda for a third time in six months.

Mayor, Jenny Hill said the actions of a few individuals had broader reaching impacts for residents and visitors and came at a huge cost to the community.

“In the latest senseless attack, these people destroyed piping, ripped down signage and pulled the cisterns from the toilets, leaving them unusable for anyone visiting the park,” Mayor Hill said.

“Council responded quickly to fixing the issue within 24 hours but it is disappointing that some people feel the need to go out of their way to ruin these community assets.

“Our parks are popular with residents and young families and to see amenities rendered unusable because of the actions of selfish and irresponsible people is not good enough.”

The Mayor said Council was doing what it could to try to kerb anti-social behaviour.

“With some of our assets, like the Pallarenda toilet block, we are limited in what preventative measures we can put in place due to the age, design and construction of the asset,” she said.

“We have been doing what we can to put preventative initiatives in throughout the city including updating toilet blocks with cisterns and plumbing embedded in the walls, improving our CCTV network, better lighting, our continued community patrols and the installation of more boulders around our parks.

“In the 2023/24 Budget, we announced $14.9 million in community safety measures as we try and get on the front foot and give residents the confidence to safely use our public spaces.”

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