MARCH 15, 2016 \ STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
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It’s young talent time Brimbank’s young talent is being urged to step up at a St Albans street festival. A street market, pop-up park, talent quest and community performances will feature in the two-day community event in Alfrieda Street, St Albans, on March 18 and 19. Singers, rappers, dancers and poets are being invited to compete for a top prize of $500 in the talent quest, hosted by members of Good Shepherd St Albans’ youth movement program. Good Shepherd community engagement worker Angela Scarpaci says performers are already rehearsing for the event. “We’d like to see as many young people enter the competition as possible, not only to show their talent but to empower them and encourage them to do what they love.” A street market will have food and goods from local traders, while Neil Ta will demonstrate martial arts and the Kealba School of Music will perform. The festival is hosted by Brimbank council with support of the St Albans Business Group Association. The market will be held from 10am to 8pm on the Friday and from 9am to 5pm on Saturday. To register for the talent quest, contact angela.scarpaci@goodshep.org.au Esther Lauaki
Maima Massaquoi and Angela Scarpaci from Good Shepherd. (Shawn Smits)
Drive-offs worst in state By Ben Cameron Pay before you pump, combined with a tougher police response, is the only way to stop drive-off petrol theft, a local service station franchisee claims. A report from a parliamentary inquiry puts Brimbank as the state’s fuel theft capital, with Victorian Crime Statistics data revealing more than 4035 reported fuel drive-offs here – more than one a day over the past decade – ahead of Casey (3190) and Hume (2480). Taylors Lakes’ United 24 franchisee Arul Packiadoss said there had been three or four
thefts a week, on average, over summer at his service station, numbers he expects to double over winter. “Pre-payment is the only alternative, but it has to be consistent or not at all,” Mr Packiadoss said. “It may affect sales within the shops; they may go down. [But] I’ve had three thefts this week, costing $139.” He said police needed to do more. Victoria Police has stated fuel drive-offs are “preventable crimes”, which can be fixed by pre-payment at the pumps and that investigating all fuel non-payment incidents “strained resources”.
“Police will only investigate a reported incident where reliable and credible evidence exists that establishes a … criminal offence,” a police submission to the inquiry states. “Police will not attend unless there are specific safety concerns, or a specific crime scene, other than CCTV footage.” The parliamentary report found “some local government areas account for a disproportionate number of complaints”, with Brimbank, Casey and Hume accounting for almost half of all recorded fuel drive-offs. Star Weekly reported last September that service stations in Ardeer, Keilor and Keilor
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Park are each being hit by petrol thieves nearly 200 times a year. At least one Brimbank service station, at Sunshine, has already installed 24-hour pre-payment at its pumps. A Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce survey of 170 Victorian retailers over the past year found Brimbank, Casey and Hume have the highest number of fuel thefts in metropolitan Melbourne. VACC spokesman David Dowsey said thefts were costing Brimbank servos almost $1000 a month. The VACC has called for protective service officers to be used to follow up petrol thefts in tandem with the Sheriff’s Office.
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