2022
Incorporating
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
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Mansfield
FLYING HIGH THE 2023 Highline Mountain Bike Festival brought all the thrills (and spills) on the weekend, with three action-packed days of adrenalin-soaked action on the outskirts of town. With a host of events added to the schedule, Speed ‘n Style returned in 2023 drawing a crowd keen to watch this relatively new discipline in the sport, an amalgamation of dual slalom and slopestyle. Pictured in the foreground is local rider Will Phipps competing against seasoned competitor Ted Oakley in an event that is all about out-scoring and out-speeding your opponent. Full story on page 39. PHOTO: Markus Kessler
Pages 16-19
Sport
FULL MERRIJIG CAMP DRAFT RESULTS
Mansfield crime rate plummets By SAMUEL O’BRIEN MANSFIELD Shire has recorded a significant drop in the number of criminal incidents recorded last year as the 2022 crime statistics for Victoria have been released. Overall, crime was down 24.4 per cent from 365 incidents that occurred in 2021, continuing a steady decrease in criminal activity in the area. Criminal incidents did spike in 2020, with public health order breaches contributing to a higher rate of crime; however 2022’s results put Mansfield back
on track with consistently lowering rates. Mansfield Senior Sergeant Steve Carden praised community efforts to reduce crime, noting the combined impact that campaigns from police and the community has on lowering crime. “I really want to stress that it is a whole of community effort,” he said. “Organisations like the Local Safety Committee, Mansfield Shire Council and ReStart assisting and engaging with people in the Mansfield area are fantastic. “That is what drives crime down.”
While some types of offences were down, criminal damage, residential nonaggravated burglary and other theft had increased. Breaches of family violence orders had decreased, after increasing by 26 per cent between 2020 and 2021 as well as common assault. Crime in Mansfield, Bonnie Doon and Jamieson has decreased, however all three top the list for the most crimes in the region. Rounding out the top five, Woods Point saw the number of criminal incidents increase while the number remained steady in Goughs Bay.
In 2021 Maindample and Merrijig featured on the list, having higher crime rates than Woods Point and Goughs Bay, now significantly decreased. There was a decrease in the number of criminal incidents where charges were laid as of December 2022 while there was a marked increase in the number still marked as ‘unsolved’, now making up the largest portion (45.7 per cent). As compared to other local government areas, Mansfield performed extremely well overall, recording the third highest drop
Latest crime stats has Shire third largest decrease in the state as crime down 24.4 p per cent
in the number of crimes, falling behind Hindmarsh (35.4 per cent) and West Wimmera (39.5 per cent). Mansfield’s improvement in the change of the number of criminal incidents was similarly matched in the Benalla Shire, where the rate rose in 2021 and dropped significantly in 2022, only to less of an extent. In the Alpine Shire the number of crimes dropped significantly as well, falling 5 per cent year-on-year as compared to Mansfield’s change of 24.4 per cent. Senior Sergeant Carden said, “One of Victoria Po-
lice’s main foci is a neighbourhood policing framework. “It is all about engaging with the community and seeing where the community needs a police focus and getting the right people around the table to drive that crime down. “That is what we have done in Mansfield and is why we are on the right track.” Across the state, there were 483,441 criminal offences recorded in 2022, representing an increase of 5652 offences or 1.2 per cent from 2021. ■ Continued page 3
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