THE images on our front page today of children lighting fires and smoking cigarettes which are understood to be cannabis are disturbing but they should be nothing new to police and the welfare agencies charged with responding to behaviour like this.
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The Glenroi resident who supplied the CWD with still photographs from video surveillance of her own property said authorities were well aware of the behaviour of unsupervised children in a few pockets of the suburb.
Police and the Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) know there is a problem but their inability to deal with it effectively seems evident from the photographs.
FACS concedes there is a problem, but insists it concerns a small number of tenancies and it responds when necessary. The department also maintains there is an action plan in place which includes regular inspections of community housing and a willingness to respond to complaints and calls of concern from the public.
However the picture painted by one couple who live in the area is of a few streets where children roam almost on a nightly basis with very little being done to stop it.
Councillors voted only a fortnight ago to apply for an extension of the Parental Responsibility Act which has been running in Orange for almost a decade.
It gives police the power to pick up children in public places deemed to be at risk and take them home to a responsible adult. Council and police regard it as an effective tool but it seems totally ineffective in this case.
Its one obvious flaw is what to do with children where a responsible adult cannot be found at home.
As recently as last week a handful of residents attended a weekend community meeting to discuss improving facilities in the Kurim Avenue neighbourhood and getting kids off the streets.
These images show the enormity of the problem and the need for the NSW government, not well meaning residents, to take the lead in solving it.