By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Greater Dandenong Council will investigate beefed-up security measures at Dandenong Basketball Stadium over reports of drug dealing and discarded syringes in the outside grounds.
At a 26 November council meeting, Cr Matthew Kirwan raised options such as CCTV at the stadium to address community concerns.
He said CCTV may help “eliminate and deter” drug users, drug dealing, littering and other criminal activity.
Nearby resident Lana Formoso recently told Star News she’d seen adults drinking in the car park as children competed inside.
She has regularly found uncapped sharps discarded in the stadium’s parkland, under the road bridge linking Stud Road.
“My kids love to run through the bridge’s tunnels,” Ms Formoso said.
“So I have to totally detour this area.”
Dandenong Basketball Association chief executive Graeme Allen played down talk of security issues.
“At the moment, I see no risk to patrons at the stadium.
“We regularly work with our council colleagues to ensure it’s a safe facility inside and out.”
Mr Allen said police regularly patrol the area but hadn’t heard reports of drug deals in the car park.
“In my first stint (with the DBA) it was an issue but it’s now cleaned up a lot.”
The custodian of a syringe-plagued bridge in parkland near Dandenong Basketball Stadium has been revealed.
Recently, both Greater Dandenong Council and Melbourne Water denied that they were responsible for cleaning up the sharps under the bridge linking the stadium to Stud Road.
However the council has now owned up that the area was under its “care and management”.
Engineering services director Julie Reid told a 26 November council meeting that this was revealed in an “old maintenance agreement” between Melbourne Water and the council.
“The agreement is quite complex in nature, which is exacerbated by the fact that each agency owns separate parcels of land within the larger allotment.”
The council inspects the structural integrity and performance of the culvert every six months, she said.
Any hazardous materials are reported and removed as quickly as possible.
