Safety plans take shape

A new agreement on alcohol consumption and enforcement between the City of Sydney and inner-city police will reduce the blame game over alcohol-fuelled violence on Oxford St.

Talks are under way for a new Memorandum of Understanding or a more binding Service Agreement to address the roles and responsibilities of alcohol-free zones, licensing and development consent enforcement.

Several commitments have already been made including 15 joint licensing operations at Oxford St venues this year involving city compliance officers and police.

These actions are among the solutions started as part of the Oxford St Safety Strategy revealed in a quarterly status report for Council last month.

A City spokesman said Council had the power to establish alcohol-free zones, but only police could enforce them.

City rangers also joined local police in an operation last November targeting drug dealing from vehicles, anti-social behaviour and storing weapons in vehicles.

Other strategies under consideration will address safety less directly, such as the reinstatement of Mary’s Place as a historic site for the gay and lesbian community, first created in 1995 following a hate-related sexual assault of a lesbian.

The City will work with the Young Lesbians project at ACON and with young people from Twenty10 and other GLBT community groups to develop a plan to reinstate the mural on the bitumen and to host a relaunch, a City spokesman said.

The report gave the first clues to what the anti-homophobia interagency of police, Attorneys-General and Education departments, ACON and the Anti-Violence Project have in development.

The first act of the new state campaign will be a conference entitled That’s So Gay on 16 April to affirm sexual diversity in educational settings. High school and university students, parents, teachers, counsellors and youth workers are invited to register on the ACON website.

Council has contributed $4,000 towards the project, and ACON is developing a website.

The city has also commissioned a study into transgender street-based sex work that will include safety recommendations.