State Member for Wallsend, Ms Sonia Hornery MP, has called on the Government to open up a grants program to allow Newcastle based sporting groups and clubs access to money towards CCTV, after the Wallsend Maryland Rugby League Football Club suffered damage by vandals.
The Community and Small Business CCTV Fund opened in April 2019 but is only available to ten Sydney based Local Government areas. The fund provided grants of up to $5,000 for community groups and small businesses to install CCTV to help protect their property.
The Wallsend Maryland Rugby League Football Club had their dressing sheds and roof damaged by vandals this week.
Ms Hornery had previously spoken in Parliament and written to the Attorney General but as yet an expansion of the program has not been considered.
“This is another example of the utter senseless destruction of property and equipment that the community has spent thousands and thousands of dollars on to buy and now will have to find money to replace it,” Ms Hornery said.
“The Government need to extend the Community and Small Business CCTV Fund beyond the Sydney basin and allow local clubs and community groups to get money towards CCTV to help protect their property and equipment.
“The Government is happy to spend money on rolling out CCTV to all MPs offices, so they obviously see the benefit of having it installed.
“We have areas around the electorate that would benefit from having CCTV cameras installed. This would go a long way towards helping combat crime in the area.
“It seems that once again the regions miss out on programs like this. Sydney gets allocated more new Police Officers per head of population and now it seems they get all the money for programs to help combat crime.”
“The Government needs to remember that crime happens north of the Hawkesbury as well. I will be contacting the Attorney General yet again and asking him to expand the program to cover the Wallsend electorate,” said Ms Hornery.