By Sahar Foladi
Residents are invited to come along to Nessy’s Cafe in Dandenong for a complimentary coffee and a chat with the local police and Councillors.
“We finally combined forces to be able to have this event to talk about community concerns, particularly the Dandenong North, Noble Park North area,” deputy mayor, Lana Formoso said.
The event is on 19 November from 10am-1pm and aims to discuss about community concerns.
“From what I’ve observed from my time as councillor, there have been armed robberies, stabbing, homelessness issues, we’ve had some mild theft, and hooning is a huge problem in the ward,” Cr Formoso said
“It’s an opportunity for everybody to come and speak to me and the police directly so that we’re all fully transparent and have the conversation together for the community to see what their concerns are and try to address that.”
There have been recent armed robberies and violent incidents in Dandenong.
Three teenagers were charged with aggravated carjacking on 4 November in relation to an incident on Stud Rd, Dandenong on 29 October.
Police are searching for an armed robber in an incident which took place on 25 October in Noble Park and another armed robbery took place on 11 October on Thomas St, Dandenong.
Vehicle thefts have also been on a surge with 35 thefts in Dandenong every day according to the National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council (NMVTRC).
Following Queensland, Victoria is the second highest state in vehicle theft with over 12,500 thefts in 2020-21 (26.5 per cent).
That’s a decrease from 2019-20 where Victoria ranked number one with over 16,500 (29.8 per cent) according to NMVTRC.
Cr Formoso said Nessy’s Cafe have had issues where people have tried to break in the premises for cash.
“These are the things we want to address but also for them to know that they’ve been heard and we are doing what we can to fix the problems.”
To reach the more diverse communities in Dandenong, Cr Formoso said she’ll work closely with the communications department to send out information in different languages.
“It’s all very well for people whose English is proficient but for those that isn’t, it’s very hard for them to express what it is they’re trying to get across. These are things we’ll definitely work on.”
