OFFICIAL STATEMENT: NEWCASTLE EAST RESIDENTS GROUP

Click here: Newcastle East Residents Group Official Statement

The Residents of Newcastle East condemn the recent act of vandalism to the United Services Club. Our interest is in preserving heritage, not damaging it.

That is one of the main reasons we have opposed the race in this Heritage Precinct.

We have, and never will encourage any member of the public to commit unlawful acts in pursuing their rights to protest. We have always endeavoured to negotiate with Council, Supercars and DNSW, and despite our efforts being largely ignored, we still believe this is the right way to make our concerns known.

We are just as outraged as all Novocastrians by the disrespect shown by those who graffitied the Club. Each of our protests to date have been in response to information given to residents by Supercars representatives.

Those protests have been to highlight to the public, certain aspects of the race we feel they don’t understand, and to point out to Supercars that often the information they are presenting is conflicting.

We are very mindful that the race has already polarised the Newcastle community. We also know that some supporters of the race will enthusiastically criticise every resident of our neighbourhood over this incident.

As in all spheres of society, there is a minority who take things too far. We have witnessed it ourselves when the NBN cables to the East End were cut, homes were ‘egged’, when car ‘enthusiasts’ do burn-outs in front of our homes and when our street gardens were poisoned and vandalised.

We accept that only a small minority of people would take such actions, and hope that others allow us to defend our rights in a legal, peaceful manner.

We encourage anyone who may have any information about the incident to contact local police.

Regards Karen Read
Newcastle East Residents Group