It’s good to see Dubbo Regional Council doing something to curb the anti-social behaviour that seems to come along for any residents who live near the walkways connecting streets and closes with parks and other vacant areas around town. 

Three more will be closed in an effort to stop the crime they seem to attract as those up to no good use the walkways as escape routes between streets in suburbs around town. 

The residents of Kookaburra Close have been campaigning to have the walkway closed for over 10 years. And they have finally got their wish.

The walkway connects the street to the Dubbo to Yeoval railway corridor which hasn’t been used since the 1980s, and, as residents say has been used as an escape route for criminals targeting the area. 

In Sturt Circle and Davidson Drive residents got together four years ago to sign a petition asking for council to close the laneway for the same reason. Again, it’s finally been done. 

And now it’s time for more residents living near these anti-social walkways to come forward. 

With councillors on a path to assist police and close these walkways, they don’t know the major problem ones unless residents living in those areas speak up and tell them. 

The mayor said at the council meeting on Monday night ‘if there are others certainly come and talk to council about it and if we can [we will] look at other ways, or indeed closing them, to make neighbourhoods safer’. 

It would be better is residents in other areas don’t have to wait 10 years, like those in Kookaburra Close have had to do.

It’s unfortunate that we live in a community where these walkways aren’t used for the reasons they were put in when the estates were created. They were made for recreational pedestrian access to parks and other streets. Instead those who only wish to cause harm and destruction are using them, making it harder again for our local police officers to do their job. 

Without these walkways (or escape routes if that’s what you wish to call them in this context), then perhaps these areas wouldn’t be targeted as much by thieves and vandals up to no good?

Let’s see what a few closures will do.  

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