Boundary, Melbourne and Vulture Streets are all up for an upgrade after the West End Traders Association commissioned an independent safety audit. Due to dimly lit streets, dirty surrounds or dark dead ends, anti-social behaviours have been ohttp://weta.org.au/n the rise. Brisbane City Council and Gabba Councillor Jonathan Sri have been asked to act immediately to improve safety in West End’s Boundary Street commercial precinct.
West End Traders Association (WETA) represents more than 30 retail and commercial businesses who together employ more than 370 staff and service almost 400,000 customers every year. WETA President Peter Marinelli said anti-social behaviour had been on the rise and was impacting on local businesses. “Customer numbers are down, shop and office leases are remaining vacant and it is having a negative impact on amenity for this great local community,” Mr Marinelli said. “Local traders identified sites of concern that are dirty, badly lit or dark dead-ends where anti-social activity has been getting worse over the past couple of years. WETA commissioned urban planning consultants Urbis to conduct a Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) safety audit of the area to see if there was anything that could be done.”
Marinelli said CPTED was an international benchmark adopted by the Queensland Police Service and Brisbane City Council and was a multi-disciplinary approach to reducing crime through urban and environmental design and better management and use of built environments.”
The International CPTED Association says “CPTED strategies aim to reduce victimisation, deter offender decisions that precede criminal acts, and build a sense of community among inhabitants so they can gain territorial control of areas and reduce opportunities for crime and fear of crime”.
Selected areas include, Small Park (or People’s Park), Boundary Street, Russell and Boundary Streets intersection and Melbourne Street Boulevard. These select areas are looking at a future redesign, improved lighting, landscape maintenance and reactivating tenancies.
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