POLITICS PAGE 6
cOUNCIL PAGE 10
inside te PAGE 12
A bittersweet budget
getting back to basics
floating on an even keel
MAY 22 2013 www.newcastlepost.com.au
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Writing on the wall
parking appeal Maitland City Council will write to the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure requesting that current State planning policy be amended to give Council greater discretion when it comes to parking provisions for affordable housing developments. Councillor Bob Geoghegan stated his intention to put forward a motion requesting a change...
Vandals could soon be caught using smartphone app
Page 5
budget reaction Hunter apprentices to benefit from funding Page 3
Cr Henry Meskauskas at Rutherford Shopping Centre, a frequent target for vandals
AMELIA PARROTT
M
aitland City Council may soon have another weapon at its disposal in the fight against vandals with Council investigating the implementation of a graffiti tracking smartphone app called VandalTrak. The app allows members of the public to snap photos of graffiti in the
community and upload the pictures to an online database where they are logged by location and catalogued by the characteristics of the tag and provided to police, the council and other organisations like Rotary Clubs and utility companies. Authorities can then match similar tags and use the photos as evidence when charging vandals. The app is credited for a 49 per cent reduction in the instance of graffiti in the western Sydney suburb of
Quakers Hill and police in Gosford on the State’s Central Coast recently charged a teen with malicious damage with evidence gathered through the app. Maitland Councillor Henry Meskauskas, who put forward the motion that Council look into adopting the app, believes similar results could be achieved in Maitland. “There are certainly runs on the board with other Councils and good
results in a number of police LACs,” he said. “Maitland police have welcomed this app with open arms.” Cr Meskauskas said although Council would pay $3,000 for a license to use the app, this figure was far less than the six figure sum Council spends on removing graffiti each year. A report on the implementation of the app will be brought back to council in a month’s time.
the real stars Netball icon’s search for the region’s best Page 20
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