On Tuesday MP for Orange Andrew Gee responded to our call for action to clean up South Terrace by taking the family’s concerns directly to NSW Minister for Family and Community Services Gabrielle Upton.

In a briefing at Parliament, Mr Gee was told the minister was sympathetic to victims of antisocial and violent, alcohol-fuelled behaviour and had a new resolve to evict public housing tenants who thumb their noses at the law.

Cr Jason Hamling, Glenroi born and proud of it, said he was also disgusted that a small minority was trashing the reputation of an entire suburb and making life miserable for decent people living in the vicinity of South Terrace.

Several residents who called this newspaper agreed. The street fights, public drunkenness, truancy and vandalism around South Terrace were not representative of the Glenroi they know.

While they were disappointed Glenroi was in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, they agreed people living in the South Terrace area who wanted to lead normal lives had the right to expect the law to be enforced, and if necessary, new laws enacted.

Yesterday the minister agreed to consider what more could be done. While Housing NSW said there was already a procedure to deal with tenants who breached their housing conditions recent experience indicates troublemakers flout those rules with impunity.

One caller who is a long-term resident of the area said things had improved, with burnt-out stolen cars no longer a routine feature of the landscape.

However, he blamed uncontrolled youths from the trouble spot for the repeated destruction of the fences around the Orange hockey complex and the abuse heaped on hockey players and spectators.

For those held hostage to this sort of behaviour change can’t come soon enough.