State budget: New police stations for Ballarat

By Tom McIlroy
Updated November 2 2012 - 4:34pm, first published May 3 2011 - 1:49pm
State budget: New police stations for Ballarat
State budget: New police stations for Ballarat

NORTH Ballarat and Sebastopol will receive new police stations in a multi-million dollar announcement yesterday.As part of the Coalition government’s first budget, $30 million will be invested for new and upgraded police stations around Victoria, including the two new stations in Ballarat.Police Minister Peter Ryan said part of the $30 million would also be used to buy land for three more police stations to be built later, leaving the exact amount allocated to the stations unknown.Ballarat also featured in the announcement of $212 million to fund 940 protective services officers to patrol Victoria’s railway stations.Ballarat railway station was included among four from regional areas, while the vast majority of protective services officers will be stationed in the Melbourne metropolitan area.Police Association assistant secretary Bruce McKenzie said the announcements were good news, but the government needed to follow up with more front-line police for the area.“It’s particularly good news for the people of Ballarat, but we do sound a note of caution,” he said. Mr McKenzie said the association didn’t want a “Yes Minister” type announcement, which would mean new police stations but not enough police to staff them.“While we welcome the new stations, we encourage the government to ensure they are adequately staffed,” he said. “It would be just terrible if police from the already understaffed central station in Ballarat were relocated to the new stations.”Ballarat police said it was too early to comment on the budget announcements yesterday.

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

$0/

(min cost $0)

or signup to continue reading

See subscription options

Get the latest Ballarat news in your inbox

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.

We care about the protection of your data. Read our Privacy Policy.