‘They’re out of control’
TEENAGE mischief has escalated into crime and violence in Sunset Point Drive, Mittagong, according to some worried residents.
Residents blame out-of-control teenagers in four or five families for petty theft and malicious damage, including setting off homemade pipe bombs and shooting animals with slingshots.
One resident told of blue tongue lizards being set on fire, cats being taken to fight with dogs and even a dog being stabbed.
Another said theft on the street was a regular occurrence.
“If they want something they go after it,” one resident said.
“They climb fences and locked gates, they have no discipline.”
Another resident said most of the people in Sunset Drive were good people, but out-of-control teenagers were making life unbearable.
One teenager is apparently known as “the golf club kid”, because he causes damage with a golf club.
Residents are fed up with spending money on extra security and repairing damaged cars and say the value of their properties has plummeted.
They want to know why the families, who they claim “run the street”, continue to live in housing managed by Argyle Community Housing, despite alleged breaches of the lease conditions.
One blamed not only Argyle Community Housing but also at NSW Housing Minister David Borger for his failure to deal with residents’ problems.
“He needs a good kick up the backside,” she said.
“He sent us back letters
acknowledging the “nuisances problems” in the street but we are talking violence and killing animals which is more than a nuisance.”
Another resident defended Member for Goulburn Pru Goward, who was the target of abusive graffiti on the street recently.
“Pru has been fantastic, she doesn’t deserve that,” she said.
“She is bending over backwards for us.”
The resident wanted to know why a paedophile, Dennis Ferguson, who hasn’t re-offended, can be evicted so quickly but juveniles who allegedly constantly re-offend are allowed to stay in the street.
The residents interviewed were afraid to give their name for fear of retributions.
‘We’re victimised’
FAMILIES who face eviction from Sunset Point Drive deny they are to blame for the street’s problems.
At least two families are in the process of being evicted from their homes, managed by Argyle Community Housing.
But outside a tribunal hearing at Moss Vale Courthouse last week, the families and their supporters said they were being victimised.
On the morning of the hearing, more than 50 people signed a petition supporting the accused families.
The group said people from outside Sunset Point Drive were causing trouble in the street and one said Bowral police were targeting him and his family.
He said police were encouraging residents to make complaints, no matter how petty, to build a weight of evidence against the families in the firing line.
The group accused Ms Goward of grandstanding, saying once the street got a reputation for being the “badlands” of Mittagong it would stick.
They said Ms Goward’s comments had made it hard for young people from Sunset Point Drive to get work because of where they lived.
“Once you get a reputation it sticks with you,” one of the group said.
A woman who has already been served with her termination notice asked how she was going to keep a roof over her head and wanted to see Ms Goward doing something positive for the street.
Teenagers said there was nothing to do in the shire and said there would not be as many problems if facilities like a skate park were built in the area.
Another suggested the land at the former Mittagong Bowling Club should be used to build a youth centre or skate park.
The group claimed Sunset Point Drive used to be a lot worse and dismissed suggestions there would retribution against residents who were speaking out against them.
The parents of the children at the centre of the controversy said their children were “fairly good kids” but suffered social and mental health issues that made them nearly impossible to control.
They said Department of Community Services and Juvenile Justice were doing their best but they were at their wits end trying to control their children.
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