CHURCH AND COMMUNITY WAR OVER INJECTING ROOM

A bitter row is developing between the Uniting Church and a Kings Cross
community group over the location of Australia's first safe injecting room,
with both sides accusing the other of dishonesty.

The newly formed Kings Cross Community Coalition (KCCC) said today it would
challenge the church's chosen location in a local poll. If necessary it
would fight for control of the proposed injecting centre.

The church has already submitted a proposal to the New South Wales
government arguing for a site at 66 Darlinghurst Road.

But the KCCC has slammed the proposed site, opposite Kings Cross train
station, saying it would create a hazard to commuters, residents and the
elderly.

Both sides have accused the other of being dubious or dishonest.

KCCC spokesman Malcolm Duncan said the church was withholding the results
of an Australian National Opinion Polls survey of residents views on the
injecting centre site.

"If Harry (Uniting Church Moderator Reverend Harry Herbert) has got an ANOP
poll that says 70 per cent of the residents are in favour of 66
Darlinghurst Road why aren't they out trumpeting it to the press?" he said.

Mr Herbert said the survey, taken in May, showed 68 per cent of residents
supported or did not mind the Darlinghurst Road site, but admitted no other
sites had been offered.

He said that the church would print the result in a residents' newsletter
but would not release the details of the survey until after a license
decision had been made.

But Mr Duncan accused the church of being difficult and unreasonable over
the issue. He said one church representative told him that the Darlinghurst
Road site was God's wish.

"We've thought about this a lot, we've prayed about it and this is God's
plan for the Cross," the clergyman allegedly said.

"It's often very difficult to deal with people like that," Mr Duncan said.

But Mr Herbert fought back by saying the KCCC could tamper with the results
of their own poll, which will be conducted outside polling stations during
the South Sydney Council elections on Saturday.

"I wouldn't have any trust in such a poll," he said.

"I mean they're conducting it, how do we know that they don't just put in
all their own responses?"

Mr Duncan conceded that originally the Darlinghurst Road site was not going
to be included in the KCCC survey but the group was now reconsidering.

Mr Herbert said the KCCC had not been open in their dealings with the
owners of a prospective safe injecting site in Craig End Road.

However the vote goes, neither group appears willing to cede to or
compromise with the other before the centre's proposed opening date in October.