Townsville City Council's patrol team has completed more than 14,000 patrols and field inspections in the last 12 months in an effort to improve the safety of Townsville's residents and visitors.
The team of five has completed more than 11,000 proactive animal patrols and more than 700 campground inspections.
Community Safety and Environment Committee chairperson, Councillor Margie Ryder, said the efforts of the team made a big impact on Townsville's parks and open spaces.
"Council has more than 300 green spaces across Townsville, so we want everyone in the community to be able to enjoy these spaces equally," Cr Ryder said.
"During more than 11,000 proactive inspections across the city's green spaces, our patrol team found 305 breaches of local and state legislation – that's one breach for every 38 patrols undertaken.
"One area that our team focuses on is off-leash parks and high use areas, which were patrolled almost 1500 times in the last 12 months. During that time there were 91 breaches recorded, mostly for dogs not being under control."
Councillor Ryder said pets were a key focus for the patrol team.
"The team ran a part-time trial to identify unregistered animals in Condon and Rasmussen. After more than 1000 inspections, 249 unregistered animals were identified," she said.
"The patrol team has also worked in collaboration with the Animal Care and Adoption Centre to help provide free microchipping for 793 animals since January 2018."
The team also works to make sure rules at Townsville's free campgrounds are followed.
Cr Ryder said more than 700 patrols were conducted at Saunders Beach, Bluewater, Balgal Beach, Toomulla Beach and Rollingstone in the last 12 months.
"We have great camping facilities here in Townsville, but it's important that everybody sticks to the rules and time limits to make sure everybody can have a turn camping and enjoying our natural environment," she said.
"Our patrol team conducted 740 campground inspections, and during those inspections 139 breaches were identified.
"While breaches across all of Townsville's parks and open spaces are quite low, we'd like to see them be even lower. If everybody sticks to the rules, we can reduce the number of infringement notices handed out and make sure our green spaces are more accessible and safer for our community."
Patrols undertaken
- More than 11,000 proactive animal patrols
- More than 700 campground inspections
- More than 1000 animal patrols in Condon and Rasmussen
- More than 1450 off-leash park and high use area animal patrols
