Golden mile needs safety upgrade

After two weekends of bashings, a shooting and a newspaper report-led drug sting, a new City of Sydney councillor is calling for a report into safety in and around Oxford Street.

In the lead-up to the recent council elections, Cr Shayne Mallard promised to try to secure street safety cameras along the predominantly gay nightclub strip.

You see police on Oxford Street, but you don’t see them often, Mallard told Sydney Star Observer.

Mallard said although he had not discussed recent crime figures with the police he had heard anecdotal evidence of homophobic violence in the back streets off Oxford Street in recent weeks.

There’s people going into Kings Cross, harassing the street girls, then heading to Oxford Street, he said.

If they see some guy who is walking home, they get out and bash him.

Mallard said he would ask council officers for a report into the viability of street safety cameras and a police camera help-point similar to those in Hyde Park at the next meeting.

The Star reported last week a gay man was hospitalised following an assault at the corner of Palmer and Oxford Streets.

And on Friday night a security guard was shot in the leg following an altercation outside Sol Nightclub.

A 21-year-old Marrickville man was charged with shooting with intent to cause grievous harm and other offences. The security guard was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital for treatment.

ACON’s Anti-Violence Project had planned a response to the recent incidents, spokesperson Somali Cerise said.

The AVP is re-invigorating our -˜On Any Street’ campaign, which will provide the community with strategies to deal with street-based violence and harassment, Cerise said.

We will be working with the police, local council, businesses and venues on Oxford St to make sure that messages about street safety are available to the gay and lesbian community.