Clinic to advise on fines
Needle work: Community Support Frankston agency manager Steve Phillips, left, Elizabeth Alexandrou, Di MacDonald and Annie Nichols get together to knit blankets for the homeless at The Dharma Hub Cafe in Frankston. Picture: Gary Sissons
PENINSULA Community Legal Centre has established a fines clinic to help people unable to pay fines. The move was necessary because of “the alarming increase in the number of people coming to our centre with out-of-control outstanding fines”, the centre’s principal lawyer Victoria Mullings said. “The financial and social costs of this problem are wide-ranging, and may include severe penalties such as loss of driver’s licence, wheel-clamping, cancellation of registration and potentially even imprisonment.” Ms Mullins said a “growing tide” of people in Frankston had run up thousands of dollars in fines and associated administrative fees. “The scale of the problem is immense and our region is one of the most negatively impacted, as borne out by the statistics released by the Sheriff’s office.” Frankston residents owed $75.5 million in unpaid warrants in 2014-2015,
making it one of the three worst local government areas in Victoria. Residents in neighbouring Casey owed $132 million. “The problem is not going away any time soon. From 2013-2014 to 20142015, there has been over a 118 per cent increase in the value of outstanding fines issued over that period,” Ms Mullins said. The fines clinic will advise clients about driving on toll-roads without an e-tag, parking fines and public transport fines. The clinic is funded to operate as a pilot for two years by the Victorian Government Community Legal Centre Assistance Fund. Clinic sessions will run 6-8pm Wednesdays by appointment with a drop-in service 9.30am-noon on Thursdays at the centre’s Frankston office. For information about the fines clinic and other free legal services, call Peninsula Community Legal Centre on 9783 3600 or visit pclc.org.au
THREE custody officers will begin deployment at Frankston police station in May – the vanguard of 12 to begin full time at the busy station by July. The officers will manage prisoners in the cells, supervise offenders, transport people between court and the station, and perform administrative duties to support police. Superintendent Glenn Weir said the custody officers were training at the Police Academy and would be assigned through a staged deployment across the suburbs.
The deployment is part of a state government election commitment. It says it has invested $148.6 million in recruiting, training and deploying 400 custody officers in 22 police stations over the next three years. Parliamentary Secretary for Justice Ben Carroll said the police custody officers would serve the community while allowing police to return to the jobs they were trained to do. He said custody officers would “free up police, who had been forced to babysit prisoners in police cells instead of fighting crime”.
Knitting together has blanket appeal Custody officers join force A KNITTING project to help the homeless is growing by the day at three cafes and two schools in the Frankston area. Di MacDonald decided to begin the ‘Knit-A-Row and Go’ initiative after seeing a Facebook page two years ago showing a South African shop owner encouraging locals to knit scarves for homeless people. The Frankston resident dropped off knitting needles, yarn and instructions for a ‘feel good pattern’ at the Street Express Cafe in Chelsea and encouraged knitters dropping in for a cuppa to knit as many lines as they liked to
make blankets for the homeless. “I moved back down to Frankston about a year ago and wanted to keep it going here,” Ms MacDonald said. “Now I’ve got three cafes in Frankston and a couple of schools involved.” When blankets are about a metre long Ms MacDonald collects them and passes them on to Community Support Frankston to distribute to the homeless. “We donate the blankets and they select who to pass them on to in the community,” she said. Students at St Anne’s Primary School in Seaford and Woodleigh
School’s Minimbah junior campus in Frankston got in on the knitting act and began darning blankets together to make rugs. The ‘Knit-A-Row and Go’ project is located at The Dharma Hub Cafe, 439 Nepean Hwy, Frankston; Trims Restaurant, 40 Playne St, Frankston and Rocotillos Cafe, 36 Wells St, Frankston. Donations of knitting needles and yarn and good old fashioned knitting time are always welcome. See the ‘Knit-A-Row and Go’ Facebook page for further information. Neil Walker
Frankston Times 22 February 2016
PAGE 7