REDLANDS MP Matt McEachan says he will focus on a drug rehabilitation facility at Thornlands and local police resourcing at a public meeting on Monday, March 6.
Mr McEachan said one reason for calling the forum was that residents and local police continued to raise concerns about the rehabilitation facility on Woodlands Drive.
“I want locals to have the chance to have their say on keeping our community safe,” he said.
Mr McEachan said Opposition justice spokesman Ian Walker and Opposition police minister Tim Mander would attend the forum at Victoria Point.
The Redland City Bulletin reported in December that police visited the Thornlands facility, which leases space at Nazarene Theological College, about four times a week to check whether bail conditions were being met.
Among conditions were night curfews, which required police to check whether bailed offenders were at the facility. Police were so concerned about safety that they usually went in groups of four.
Mr McEachan said courts were bailing serious offenders to the facility at Thornlands instead of sending them to more regulated facilities outside the Redlands.
He said he had invited Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath and Police Minister Mark Ryan to attend.
A spokesman for Mr Ryan said he would be in regional Queensland on the day of the meeting, but would discuss the forum with Mr McEachan on February 28.
A spokesperson for Ms D’Ath said at the time of going to press she had not received an invitation.
In September, Woodlands Drive residents said they had recorded 13 break-ins, three cars stolen, a shooting and an attempted murder in the area in 18 months.
Detective Inspector Owen Elloy from Bayside Crime Group said at the time that scarce resources were used to police the facility.
"It calls itself a rehab program … but it’s a halfway house for high-risk criminals in the middle of the Cleveland district,” he said.
The forum will be held at the Victoria Point Sharks Sporting Club on Monday from 7pm to 8.30pm.
