No Safety Day for this year

No Safety Day for this year

By Yasemin Pelevan

Docklands’ popular Community Safety Day will not be held this year due to funding cuts.

Victoria Police has withdrawn its co-ordination of the event which, for the past five years, has drawn thousands of visitors into Docklands.

Docklands businesses were saddened to learn that the event won’t be happening this year and have vowed to try to resurrect the event for next year.

Docklands Chamber of Commerce President Keith Rankin said the chamber would have happily helped co-ordinate the event if it was aware that the event was in jeopardy.

It is understood that the event costs about $165,000 to conduct but that corporate sponsorship had dried up.

And Victoria Police this year decided to allocate funding away from its previous co-ordination role.

Community Safety Month Advisory Committee secretary Leading Fire Fighter Mark Crowe said the committee had really pushed for the event to again be held in Docklands but struggled to get it on this year’s Community Safety Month calendar.

“The event is not cancelled. It was just not scheduled this year due to a lack of funding,” Mr Crowe said.

The Community Safety Month Advisory Committee is hoping to gain funding elsewhere to ensure the event is up and running next year.

“We will need to look for different avenues of funding to have the event next year,” Mr Crowe said.  “It’s a shame it hasn’t happened, it was a major event of the month.”

Victoria Police Sgt Noel Redmond said: “Due to economic conditions and due to Victoria police requirements and commitments with manpower and resources elsewhere we decided to withdraw from the Community Safety Day for 2011.”

“Our commitment for 2012 will be reviewed,” Sgt Redmond said.

The event allowed Docklanders and visitors to meet people who worked and volunteered to protect Victorians. It was also an opportunity to get close to emergency vehicles and workers.

Most importantly, the event educated Victorians on the importance of safety. Police officers, firemen and emergency service officers were readily available to chat about their jobs and answer any questions.

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