Motor vehicle thefts, fraud and malicious damage to property are the top priorities of Lake Macquarie City Council's crime prevention plan for the next three years.
The council has made a draft version of the plan available online and is calling for public feedback until February 24 - a questionnaire is live on the Shape Lake Mac website.
The draft plan uses data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research to note that, of the state's 120 local government areas, Lake Macquarie was ranked the 13th highest for fraud and 26th for thefts from motor vehicles as of September, 2019. According to the report, the council collected those statistics last February.
It noted that the three target areas were settled upon after considering council's ability to impact certain crime categories, the prevalence of offences and input from Lake Macquarie police.
The report said 6pm to 6am was the priority time to target motor vehicle theft at Charlestown, Belmont, Morisset, Redhead, Boolaroo, Cardiff and Cooranbong where trail bikes and boat-trailer combos are known to go missing and where stolen cars are often dumped in bushland.
A public education campaign about security and better dialogue between police and rangers for an improved response to dumped vehicles were listed among the strategies council plans to introduce.
Charlestown, Mount Hutton, Glendale, Morisset, Cardiff, Edgeworth and Belmont were noted as places most often associated with fraud at Lake Macquarie, according to the report, with phone scams and internet swindles recorded in those suburbs. People driving away from service stations without paying - resulting from license plate fraud - was also an issue.
Graffiti was identified as an ongoing problem in the draft document, which noted that high profile locations such as major roads and railway corridors were being damaged by opportunistic vandals.
The council plans to increase its capacity for repairing damaged public property and removing graffiti in a timely manner, the report said.
"Council has an important role in community safety and crime prevention and we can make the most difference by targeting these key areas," council's community partnerships manager Andrew Bryant said.
"We will be looking to continue to work with police and our community partners closely to further reduce the number and rate of these offences in Lake Macquarie."
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