By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
HOONS keep ripping through Alder Way reserve and depriving Cranbourne families of the green open space.
“They were herding these kids like cattle and they were screaming,” Alder Way resident Tracey Healand said.
The problem stretches over at least eight years and worsened after desalination pipes were put in and a fence never replaced.
Ms Healand said trailbikes, cars and minibikes use the reserve between Narre Warren-Cranbourne Road and the South Gippsland Highway as a bypass to access adjacent streets, instead of using the made roads.
“They cut through and drive the length of the reserve, they do donuts on the weekends and we’ve even had a car explode out there,” she said.
“I’m really desensitised to the issue now because its been going on for so long.”
At one stage Ms Healand called police every day because of hooning activity and even had a run-in with the culprits.
“One of the neighbours kids cross the reserve a lot because their grandparents live on the other side and the motorbikes started herding them, I came running because I had an incident with them earlier,” she said.
“It is a designated off-lead dog park and my husband and I were walking our dogs and one of them on a bike came right through the middle of us and separated us.”
The dangerous antics have spread out of the reserve and onto the streets, with break-ins a daily concern.
Ms Healand said her home has been targeted twice by thieves.
“We’ve had two attempted burglaries that I know of because we were home,” she said.
“I heard someone on the deck and the dogs went nuts, I feel safe with the dogs, don’t know if I would without them, but I have security doors.”
Casey councillor Amanda Stapledon brought the hooning problem to council on Tuesday 19 July, with a community safety meeting planned to discuss preventative options.
Both Cr Stapledon and Ms Healand would like to see installation of barricades or fencing to stop the hoons once and for all.
“The hooning activity is endangering people’s lives,” Cr Stapledon said.
