RESIDENTS PLAN A BETTER FUTURE

The winds of change are blowing down Port Kembla's Wentworth
St.

In the CBD, where drug abuse and heroin overdoses were once so common,
locals said, that an ambulance could simply park in a side-street and
wait, business owners and the police are winning the war and
reclaiming the territory.

According to local pharmacist and long-time Port Kembla advocate Phil
Bowden, the process began with the abolition of the needle exchange
program in 1998, but won't be truly over until the shops and streets
are filled with people and the town has its own bank.

"The immediate effect (of abolishing the needle exchange) was to put a
barrier between the supply from the local dealers and the vein," Mr
Bowden said.

"They had to go elsewhere for the needles and a lot of people left
town."

Soon after, Wollongong City Council began its No Loitering trial in
Port Kembla, coupled with an increased police presence and regular
"sweeps" through Wentworth St.

The trial slashed the town's crime figures by a massive 54 per cent
and the number of overdoses by 83 per cent.

Since the trial ended in September, Mr Bowden said the town's old
problems had begun slowly creeping back.

Although signs will soon be erected in the CBD promoting police "move
on" powers, he said it was too early to predict how effective they
would be.

Port Kembla Chamber of Commerce secretary Dorothy Johnson said the
town's future lay not in trying to emulate other Illawarra centres,
but in creating a shopping area with a unique range of businesses.

"We can't compete with Warrawong Shopping Centre and we won't even
try," she said.

"But what we would like is an art gallery, an antique store and
another restaurant. We have three good ones at the moment but we would
like another one."

The town is about to take a major step towards a brighter future with
the launch next week of a bid to establish the Port Kembla Community
Bank branch of the Bendigo Bank.

Like Oak Flats, which is well on the way to setting up its own
financial institution, Port Kembla has been abandoned by the
commercial banks with the last one, ANZ, closing its branch last year.

A community bank, with its profits being ploughed back into the town,
is integral to a prosperous future for Port Kembla, according to Mr
Bowden.

"We would expect our five-year projections to be sufficient in profit
to buy substantial properties in the area so we won't have to rely on
the council for changes," he said.

"Then we can get well and truly into developing the heart of Port
Kembla in a commercial sense."

In the meantime he encouraged people with business ideas to come and
see what Port Kembla had to offer.

"Come and have a look and see what you can offer this town, not just
what this town can offer you," he said.

"You want to come in with some cash and a business plan, don't just
come in with a blank cheque."