Council is currently proposing to build a 24-hour access footpath from the Bethania train station to Old Logan Village Road at Waterford.
As someone who once oversaw the security at Canterbury College and lived on Old Logan Village Road across from the school, I am very concerned for the future of the College and the residents at the Waterford Gardens townhouse complex.
Whilst the College is a large site with three road frontages, 95% of the theft, graffiti and vandalism that I encountered at the school originated via access from Old Logan Village Road. The road is the most discreet of the three and has little to no through traffic at night.
During my time at Canterbury, many of the trespassers came in cars (sometimes in convoy) and some on motorbikes and 95% of them at night.
Sometimes groups of youths even came with bolt cutters for padlocks to access the school.
Adult men would break in and also vandalise the school.
On a few occasions, there was physical violence.
On one occasion my house got robbed by thieves coming up from the old train line.
On many occasions when thieves or vandals were chased out of the College by myself, the security patrol and or the local police, particularly at night, they would all run to escape via the rail line as cars couldn’t follow them.
This month, I have been talking with shopping centre security in Beenleigh.
They have been telling me that youths have been using the train line to access crime targets.
On the morning that I was being told this, security actually pointed out a group of teenagers heading up from the train station towards the shopping centre.
Their comment was “Those five kids are from Pimpama and they are here to steal from these shops”.
The Council want to build a footpath that is
- discreet
- with ‘cover of dark’ access
- originating from a Logan train station
- creating a ‘back door’ connection to a private school
- running along the back fence line of a residential townhouse complex
- ensuring the two “must haves” for criminals: access and opportunity
- and all during the worst youth crime epidemic in history.
It is a perfect storm.
James Herbst,
Mount Warren Park
