Locals take aim at Oxford St alcohol fallout

by Anne von Fehrn
A local action plan aiming to cut back alcohol-related crime and violence in Surry Hills and Darlinghurst is showing early signs of success according to its supporters.

An alliance of community groups, high profile organizations, Surry Hills Police and City of Sydney Council is working on ways to reduce antisocial behaviour, assaults, malicious damage and homophobic violence.

Faced with declining public amenity in Oxford Street, The Community Safety Precinct Committee met several times at the end of 2008 to find ways of making Oxford Street and its surroundings safer.

The Aids Council of New South Wales (ACON) is on the committee and says police are on the right track to tackle violence in the area.

‘It’s a shame that the plan doesn’t specifically mention homophobic violence, but the link between alcohol-related crime and homophobic violence is clear and the actions identified in the plan will have a positive impact on the GLBT community,’ an ACON spokesperson said.

The plan includes scheduling a council clean-up earlier in the morning to get people off congested Oxford Street. Additional Council Compliance Officers will keep late-trading food venues to their allowed opening hours, and more community events are planned such as markets and space for street artists.

The Nichols Street Community Group says that there are still too many licensed venues in the precinct.

‘Out of 210 venues, 14 hold a 24-hour licence,’ Brian Noad of the group said. ‘The whole area is saturated with alcohol which leads to assault, robbery, drugs, bad behaviour such as urinating in public and malicious damage.’

But according to Surry Hills Police Commander Donna Adney, the recently introduced 2am lockout has resulted in far fewer people on the street and, that is reducing alcohol-related crime.

‘Since the 1st of December there are less people around on the weekend nights or early morning hours. The venues on the lockout list are trying hard and are doing a good job,’ she said.

She said venues currently not on the list are under fierce scrutiny and could be added to the list. ‘The Premier has given us assurance that there is capacity to extend the list if necessary,’ Commander Adney said.

Community groups say that the plan should also include earlier closure times for food venues. Mr Noad said some of the late trading fast food venues were adding to the problems in the precinct. ‘Many places are trading longer than they are allowed to so we need Council to check on these places and bring them under control,’ he said.

But Kaan Yuksel, manager of the Five Star Kebab and Pizza House on Oxford Street near Taylor Square said that alcohol is the problem, not the food. ‘There are a lot of drunken people around here causing trouble,’ Mr Yuksel said. ‘But from a business point for view, it would be good to trade 24-hours: in times of economic uncertainty, we could offer two more jobs to fill those hours,’ he said.

The Committee will meet again on 24 March.