Dilapidated police houses raise questions in small towns

Updated January 18, 2014 09:25:00

Some small communities in New South Wales are being left with no local officers while asbestos riddled police properties are repaired.

Source: AM | Duration: 2min 53sec

Topics: police, asbestos, ungarie-2669, nsw, quandialla-2721


BRENDAN TREMBATH: Small communities in New South Wales have been left without police officers because many older police residences are not considered safe to live in.

Asbestos and lead paint were discovered in hundreds of police properties.

Natalie Whiting reports.

NATALIE WHITING: It's been more than 18 months since a permanent police officer was stationed in the small town of Ungarie in the central west of New South Wales.

Asbestos contamination in the local police residence left the town being serviced by officers from West Wyalong, more than half an hour away.

Local Neville Lane says crime picked up after the change.

NEVILLE LANE: Once there was no police presence in the town, some of the hoons started to play up.

NATALIE WHITING: He says the dilapidated house is the only thing stopping an officer being based locally.

NEVILLE LANE: There's been three or four officers that have been prepared to come to Ungarie, but they've been stopped because of the fact of the condition of the residence.

NATALIE WHITING: Mr Lane is leading a community campaign calling for a police presence to be returned to the town, which has a population of around 350 people.

NEVILLE LANE: Well I had 265, I think it was off the top of my head, signatures on the petition.

NATALIE WHITING: Following the petition, locals have been told a residence will be re-established and a permanent officer returned.

But Ungarie is not the only small town facing the situation.

In nearby Quandialla, the police station is in the process of being sold off because it's in a state of disrepair.

The station was closed in 2009 because the adjoining house was considered too expensive to repair.

Assistant Police Commissioner Gary Worboys says other smaller towns are also now being serviced by outside stations, but he says the system is working well.

GARY WORBOYS: We haven't had any issues to date but I'm well aware that there's an importance of having a police visibility and police presence in every country town, no matter how small those towns are.

NATALIE WHITING: The mayor of the Harden Shire in the southern tablelands, Chris Manchester, says it's a widespread issue.

CHRIS MANCHESTER: The residences themselves are in need of maintenance. At least ours are liveable, but in other areas they're not so lucky.

NATALIE WHITING: The police house at Wallenbeen, in the Harden Shire, was replaced with a transportable home after it was condemned.

Councillor Manchester says he wrote to the Minister for Police after hearing about the costs associated with the replacement.

CHRIS MANCHESTER: I think it was somewhere in the vicinity of, getting up towards $500,000, which we thought was totally exorbitant. Even though it's a nice transportable home, it seemed extremely costly.

NATALIE WHITING: Assistant Commissioner Worboys says different alternatives are being explored.

GARY WORBOYS: We've certainly found the building of police houses and police stations has been a costly exercise. We're also exploring renting private rental properties for police as well.

NATALIE WHITING: Work on upgrading police sites containing asbestos is expected to cost $100 million.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Natalie Whiting.