Let’s Talk: What do you do when you don’t feel safe in your neighbourhood

How safe do you feel in your neighbourhood? For residents in a suburb of Cairns, far north Queensland, they don’t feel safe at all and have called on the local and state governments to take action.

The group of residents from in and around Badilla Street at Edmonton says they are so fed up with attacks from “young criminals” that they want the street to be locked down and all non-residents to be forcibly removed.

One member of the local Neighbourhood Watch group says youths gather in the park and “launch criminal activity and deal drugs”, while a neighbouring sports club has had its shade sails destroyed and has been regularly broken into by vandals.

“We want to make our politicians aware of the problems… It’s getting to the stage where we are looking at taking things into our own hands,” Neighbourhood Watch member Paul Drabble told news.com.au.

Feeling safe in your community is just as important as feeling safe inside your home. What’s the point of making your property secure if you aren’t prepared to set foot outside your front door for fear of being assaulted, robbed or killed?

For the residents of the Edmonton street, they’ve sent a list of demands to address the high crime rate in their area to the Cairns Regional Council and the Queensland Government.

How safe do you feel in your neighbourhood? Are you a member of Neighbourhood Watch? What action would you take to address high crime in your local area?