Avalon Airport chief executive Justin Giddings will head a community panel to help guide development of Werribee’s new youth detention centre.
The state government has announced a 15-member community advisory group, who have been selected on their local connections to share information about the youth prison among the community and will provide feedback to the youth justice redevelopment project team and government.
Mr Giddings is joined by Wyndham Police Inspector Marty Allison, Wyndham councillors Kim McAliney, Peter Maynard and Walter Villagonzalo, council officer Natalie Walker, Barbara McLure from the Committee for Wyndham, former Wyndham mayor and business owner John Menegazzo, Annette Vickery from the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, business owner Marisa Berton, Wyndham resident and former Speak Out chair Lisa Heinrichs, and Peter Ewer, Garry Jackson, Lenard Norman and Richard Wittmack, all from the justice department.
The group will meet for the first time on June 19.
Mr Giddings, who is also chair of the board of The Gordon and is on the board of the Committee for Geelong, said he was honoured by the appointment and would “ensure the people of Wyndham are heard”.
“I will be working closely with all the members of the community advisory group to make the Youth Justice Redevelopment Project a success in Wyndham,” he said.
Richard Wittmack, who is heading up the project, told Star Weekly in April that the group would meet up regularly until the facility is open.
“We’re looking for them to be people who are engaged with the community who can disseminate information about the project and also bring forward suggestions from the community about the project,” Mr Wittmack said.
“Some of the things they will be engaged around is the lighting for the facility, the traffic management plan, the cultural heritage management plan … this is very similar to what we’ve done with Ravenhall and other projects.”
Construction on the youth detention centre – which will be located on a 67-hectare site owned by Melbourne Water, set back about 700 metres from Wests Road in Werribee – is expected to begin in mid-2018.
The facility, which will include 224 beds for remanded and sentenced youths aged between 10 and 21, a 12-bed mental health unit and an eight-bed intensive supervision unit, is earmarked to open in early 2021.
