LOCALS FEAR HEROIN CLINIC WILL BE 'SHOOTING GALLERY'

A clinic for heroin addicts is to open in Melbourne's most populated
inner-city precinct despite strong opposition from residents and traders.

Wesley Central Mission is finishing the refurbishment of a warehouse in
Little Lonsdale Street, which locals fear will become a shooting gallery
attracting large numbers of drug addicts and their dealers.

Shooting galleries are outlawed in Victoria. But residents believe a Labor
Party commitment to providing safe injecting rooms may mean the role of the
clinic is expanded into a venue for addicts to inject drugs, as uncertainty
grows over which political party is likely to form government in the state.

Wesley Mission failed to reply to repeated requests for comment on the issue.

In this month's edition of the newsletter Action Wesley Mission
superintendent Mr Timothy Langley writes that those to be treated at the
clinic will be a "group of chronically addicted users" whom he described as
"collectively responsible for most of the public nuisance in our precinct".

Mr Langley said the clinic would house a health-care service and a range of
"appropriate clinical interventions for heroin users", which would provide
"access to appropriate referral services".

Wesley Mission intends to have a trial run of the clinic for one year.

"The issue of whether to allow intravenous injection in the facility is
contentious ... We have no intentions of allowing any activity without the
support of government," Mr Langley wrote.

The precinct is home to 450 residents living in apartment towers and
renovated Victorian houses and shops that line the street.

In the letter, Mr Langley says a large number of community consultations on
heroin use had taken place.

But residents say no meaningful consultation had taken place, and that
their concerns had not been taken into account. Resident and business owner
Ms Denise Sullivan, who lives opposite the clinic, said there had been no
consultation with residents.

Ms Sullivan said the area to the city's east was an urban village during
the day despite a problem with petty crime at night. Ms Sullivan is a
member of the residents group EastEnders Inc.

She said that while the level of drug abuse and crime in the area could be
tolerated, the establishment of an injecting centre would compound the
problem.

City of Melbourne councillor Joanna Pace said planning for the clinic had
proceeded without the need for a permit under a State Government provision,
which undermined the council's position on the clinic.

"Council doesn't have the power to respond," Cr Pace said.

She said under the former planning process Wesley Mission would have had to
apply for a permit. But she added that under the new planning laws it did
not require a permit.