THE PUMP don't work cause the vandals took the handle.
So sang Bob Dylan in Subterranean Homesick Blues back in 1965.
If he was in Newcastle, the now 80-year-old could add the half-court basketball facility's backboard and hoop adjacent to Nobbys, destroyed twice in a few months, to the long rap sheet of local vandals.
No wonder we can't have nice things. Ratbags seem to take pleasure in destroying the joint. Whether it is smashing public toilets or smashing the roofs and ripping out the tables of picnic shelters next to the canoe pool at Newcastle beach, there are very few community assets that do not attract the unwanted attention of vandals.
The wrecking of the Novocastrian Park playing surface by hoons in a vehicle or vehicles on a Friday night a couple of weeks ago resulted in about 900 football players having their matches cancelled. Home to the New Lambton Football Club (NLFC), all Novocastrian Park users have benefited from the work that football club volunteers contribute to maintaining and improving the facility. Such work complements and extends the service provided by the City of Newcastle (CoN).
Sadly, it's not the first time vandals have struck. Club president Steve Manning told the Newcastle Herald the vandalism of the oval was the worst he'd seen, and that it happened every year.
Club members, supporters and others in the community weren't just saddened and disappointed. They were fuming. The NLFC took to social media and vented not just at the idiots who wrecked the surface, but at the CoN for failing to facilitate repeated requests for a long-term solution that would prevent vandals' vehicles from gaining access to the playing surface.
"And City of Newcastle we've asked you MANY TIMES to put up fencing to stop this happening, you do a half job and give us some sandstone blocks on one side of the park! We asked you about putting up cameras at our expense and you deny us on privacy concerns! What a joke! This is so heartbreaking for our committee."
Last Thursday, CoN councillor Peta Winney-Bartz told ABC Newcastle's breakfast program that large sandstone blocks would be put alongside the Orchardtown Road perimeter of the park to prevent and deter vandals.
The conversation then shifted to CCTV.
Cr Winney-Bartz said surveillance was very tricky around privacy issues. Presenter Jenny Marchant asked "It's a public space, what are the privacy issues?"
"We have lots of people very opposed to being surveilled while they are . . . it's not just a soccer ground . . . lots of people have expressed concern about not wanting to be surveilled in a passive area," Cr Winney-Bartz said.
Not wanting to be under surveillance is not something you or I have a choice about in many public spaces.
CCTV surveillance doesn't seem to be an issue with nearby Lake Macquarie City Council. The Charlestown Swim Centre (offering a tropical 26 degrees in mid-winter) was last week displaying a sign in the male dressing room advising patrons that CCTV cameras would soon be installed throughout the premises.
And they can do it because local councils in NSW are exempt from provisions under the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (PPIP Act) to use CCTV cameras in public places. Exemptions relate to the collection of personal information by using a CCTV camera installed for the purpose of filming in a public place, and the disclosure to NSW Police of that information by way of live transmission
CCTV surveillance doesn't seem to be an issue with Lake Macquarie council.
A 2019 Australian Institute of Criminology report looked at whether CCTV helped police solve crime. After examining 22,000 crime events recorded by NSW Police on the NSW rail network, the study found 24.8 per cent of matters where footage was requested were solved by police, compared with 21 per cent of matters where footage was not requested - an 18 per cent increase in clearance rates.
There are numerous issues around local council use of CCTV. How and when footage is accessed, the cost of installation, maintenance and management, camera vandalism, and the triggering of strong light to enable a camera to clearly record are just a few significant challenges.
But relying upon "privacy concerns of lots of people" when arguing against CCTV installation to help identify vandals regularly targeting a park doesn't wash with tireless community members who have had a gutful of seeing their hard work repeatedly trashed.
Let's hope the large sandstone prevents another hoon event at Novocastrian Park.
