Social media feedback has been largely supportive of local businesses coping with CBD safety issues. Comments followed last edition’s coverage of Reimagine Nambour’s Safety Petition launch (sign the petition at www.facebook.com/iamnambour).

• “7am this morning and two drug dealers sitting on the footpath at the railway station & McDonalds,” reported one person in response to last edition’s coverage.

• “Nambour has f--- all police presence to make people feel safe. Can’t even walk along the creeks or play in a park without (seeing) a junkie and a syringe.”

• “I was in there yesterday morning and honestly it felt like walking through a ghetto. People passed out on benches, groups of teens acting feral. I watched a few older people walking around and actually felt concerned for their safety. Some police presence would help people feel a bit safer.”

• “I literally had an addict walk out and try to wave me down in front of me and my elderly mother whilst driving up the back of St Joseph's today.” 

• “It is true, our beautiful town has recently suffered under the growing breakdown in society on many levels. Over the past few months our streets have deteriorated. So many businesses and charities straining under the pressure,” said another.

• “Nambour is being used ... as a place to keep all unsightly things away from their tourism areas. It is really terrible that Nambour businesses have to put up with this.”

• “Irrespective of the cause there are issues. More cops on the beat and CCTV required.”

• “We have a fancy new police station but no police.”

Others said crime figures showed Nambour was no worse than other towns and highlighting the issue was unfair to vulnerable people and would only give Nambour a bad name and discourage investment.

• “Add some statistics regarding the level of crime comparatively to other towns on the Sunshine Coast. Stop with your smear campaign.”

• “It's all a tory ploy to paint Qld Labor as soft on crime. The actual crime stats are the lowest in the region. These judgemental stories of undesirables have no place in serious journalism.”

• “Blaming treatments for addiction for your constructed moral panic. Have some integrity!”

• “These guys are just part of a misinformation and scare campaign being conjured up by local conservative lobbying groups and state/federal Liberal MPs.”