Port Augusta Mayor Brett Benbow has voiced his frustrations on the ongoing issue of anti-social behaviour in Port Augusta and has asked for more support from the community.
Mr Benbow said people were consistently complaining about the council not addressing the problem, but did not seem to realise how much effort was actually going into trying to solve the problem.
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"We have an anti-social behaviour problem here, not so much a loitering problem and so forth, we have people being harassed in public, we have drunkenness in the streets, and alcohol being consumed outside the limit," he said.
"We have been working hard on this and we are not getting too far, and it is impacting on our community.
"I am sick and tired of council getting push back and blame for this, we have tried and we continue to try."
Mr Benbow said despite all the efforts council has put in, there was only so much it could do as a lot of what can be done was out of their hands.
"The thing with City Safe is council should not be running the program," he said.
"People have had a crack at us about Bylaw Three, but that does not give us authorisation to arrest and move people on.
"I just want the problem fixed for my city, and I want people to back council, not bag council; work with us, not against us, and assist us in fixing this problem.
"If you feel frustration, you are dead right.
"We have been working hard on this and we are not getting too far, and it is impacting on our community."
Mr Benbow said a focus should be on looking after the people on the streets as that could help to reduce anti-social behaviour.
"I started this conversation back in 2020 of homeless people not being looked after and their children, therefore, not being looked after," he said.
"Who is looking after these people who are out there?
"I think if that can be looked at, we can help people change their attitude and we can start to amend this problem."
