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Tree pruning considered to curb rowdyism at park By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF 7 · Wednesday, April 21, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com The Town of Oakville is hoping some gardening will be enough to curb rowdy behaviour taking place in Sunningdale Park. The Town's Director of Parks and Open Space Christopher Mark said the Town has received numerous complaints in recent weeks from people living next to Sunningdale Park about drinking and illegal drug use being committed there by youths once the sun goes down. Graffiti and the smashing of beer bottles throughout the park has also been reported causing the Town to turn to Halton police for help. "We did a walkthrough of the park with the Halton police and they did recommend a couple of actions," said Mark. "This included cleaning up the west fence line in terms of all the shrubs and branches that are coming through the fence because this is really acting as an area of concealment for the kids, who are hanging out there and not behaving appropri- ately. Cleaning that up will allow more sightlines into that area and more eyes into the park." Police recommended removing the branches of three spruce trees in the park, which are less than three to four feet above the ground, to eliminate possible hiding places. Halton Police District Response Unit Sgt. Vince Williams said the recommendations follow the principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. He said other variations have included adding more lighting to an area to make it a less suitable place for criminal activity. Williams said these techniques have proven successful in reducing rowdy behaviour in other parks, but only when members of the community assist the police when there is a problem. "If you see something and you don't call us and we don't know, then we can't address it," said Williams. "Sometimes the officers may be tied up elsewhere and when they get time they will proactively patrol, but sometimes an officer could be right around the corner doing a report and if a citizen calls and says, `Kids are gathering in the park' and the officer is really close by, then just that presence could stem anti-social behaviour." Halton Police Public Affairs Officer Sgt. Brian Carr is also calling for greater parental responsibility to prevent issues like the one in Sunningdale Park. He said parents should know where their children are at times like 1 a.m. Not everyone is happy with the Town's pruning plans with area resident Urszula Szychowska pointing out that cutting away parts of trees and bushes is not a practical way of fighting crime. "The kids will just go somewhere else once they cut (prune) those trees down," said Szychowska. 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