Burglars park into yards

What do you do when parks that were once created for the betterment of the community, are now being used by criminals to steal from you?

This was the question that burned deep in the mind of a resident who wants to remain anonymous and living in View Street, after he noticed burglars were using the Silver Street park to gain access to, and scout out houses in the area.

Many of the houses in the area have nothing more than a wall between them and the park, posing no challenge to criminals.

“They started off with just taking what they could get from the yards, but now there have been signs they are potentially trying to get into the houses and storerooms,” said the resident.

He feared for the safety of his family fellow residents, especially when alone.

He said five years ago a petition had been sent to the municipality to address the matter, but nothing was done.

Ward 3 Councillor, Matthew Shunmugam, felt the matter was indeed an issue to bring to Council’s attention.

“We try our best to make sure our residents are happy, but this may be out of our hands. Safety and security is not really the municipality’s focus. This is the police’s area of expertise, but we still make an attempt to tackle it.”

He said as much as the municipality would love to address these issues immediately, it could not, due to budget constraints.

“We have to make specifications for issues such as these in the budget, but we also have to look at what aspects are priorities,” he commented.

Further investigations into the matter will continue.