By VANESSA VALENZUELA
RESIDENTS fear a Deer Park street will continue to be littered with used syringes after requests for additional lighting in the area were denied by Brimbank City Council.
A petition signed by 16 residents from Summers St in Deer Park was tabled at an ordinary council meeting earlier this year, asking for an additional light pole in the street to improve visibility at night and deter drug-users from dumping their used syringes in the area.
Brimbank Council refused the request at last week’s meeting on the grounds that current lighting in the street met the requirements of its policy for the provision of street lighting.
Deer Park resident Angelo Tenalgia was disappointed council had denied the request and that additional lighting was needed in the area to increase public safety.
Mr Tenalgia said he often found used syringes on the nature strip when mowing the lawn and witnessed cars parking at the front of his house in the middle of the night.
He said residents were worried the lack of lighting would encourage further drug-dealing activities in the street.
“We need a light there to protect ourselves then we can all be safe – kids and adults,” Mr Tenalgia said.
“If we have a light, then no one will park there anymore. The light, which comes from the corner on the end of the street, we don’t see very much of at all because we have trees in the way.”
Resident Roberto Pettinau agreed, saying he would feel safer at night if a new street light was installed in the street.
“It will make the drug dealers not park outside the front of our houses. No one is going to park under a street light to deal drugs,” he said.
General Manager of Infrastructure and Environment Paul Younis said council often received a number of requests for additional lighting and followed a set of criteria to determine what is appropriate for the area.
He said council had also engaged in discussions with an officer from the Keilor Downs Police Station who said there had been some illegal activity recorded around Summers St, but crime levels in the area had been “flat” over the last five years.
“We have spoken to Victoria Police in relation to this, and in following our investigations we found that the request doesn’t meet the requirement for additional lighting, that the current lighting there is sufficient in accordance with those codes,” Mr Younis said.
