The Need a Feed van provides $1 cups of coffee in Globe Lane on weekday mornings, in an outreach arrangement introduced with council and police backing in mid-2017.   

It came under scrutiny last week at a police-led forum aimed at bringing frank feedback from the public to the ears of law enforcers. The city’s top cop and Wollongong MP Paul Scully vowed to follow up the claims. 

But council and Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery have since defended the arrangement, saying it has reduced anti-social behaviour in the mall, and that those being complained about have a right to be there.

Comic Cafe operators Shane Mason and Chris Atlee told last Wednesday’s forum the van attracted a “druggie” crowd of people who filled the laneway with sounds of loud swearing, requests for cigarettes and “yappy dogs”. 

Mr Mason told the Mercury up to 20 people regularly congregated like this near his cafe’s entrance. He said the noise was at its worst when it rained, when the crowd moved to an undercover area nearer to the cafe’s door, and that the business had stopped early trading as a result, moving its opening time from 8am to 10am.  

Read more: Unanderra couple fronts court over claims boy was drugged to sleep

“They come and sit directly next to our shop, under the old David Jones carpark, just swearing – just ‘f’s’ and ‘c’s’ everywhere,” he said. 

“It echoes. I can hardly hear my customers because of the noise they’re making.

“I have to go out and persuade customers to come into our shop. I spoke to [some customers] about it afterwards and they said, ‘how do you put up with that?’. 

“I’ve had a customer stand in front of me, telling his wife [on the phone], ‘don’t come down here, it’s not safe, I’ll come up and meet you at H&M’. 

“I actually watch [drug] deals happen. I let the police know but by the time they come down, obviously it’s too late.”

Mr Mason wants the van moved to MacCabe Park.

But Cr Bradbery said the city had “no reason to move these people on”, as they weren’t doing anything antisocial or illegal when observed by authorities. 

“I have to respect other people’s rights. It’s a public space,” he said. 

Need a Feed founder Shaz Harrison said the van provided a community service to people who were socially disadvantaged. 

“Our data shows that the bulk of our coffee sales are to the socially disadvantaged. On this basis this is not a competing service with cafés/coffee shops,” she said. 

Council, police and the GPT Group originally invited Need a Feed to set up in the laneway in an exercise partly aimed at drawing people away from “sites where they were causing some concern” – the western end of Crown St Mall, the Mercury understands. 

A council spokeswoman said affordable coffee was only part of the van’s offering. “Other services include the provision of food and clothing, referrals to social services, and assistance with career opportunities,” she said. 

“Since the start of the initiative ... NSW Police have reported a drop in anti-social behaviour and a reduction in the number of concerns raised around perceptions of safety throughout the mall from shop owners and members of the community.

“This feedback has also come from businesses in Globe Lane, which indicates having the coffee van and services in Globe Lane has not simply moved people on from one location to another but addressed the needs of those accessing the service in a supportive environment.”

The van sold an average of 34 cups of coffee a day, mostly to less advantaged buyers, the spokeswoman added. 

Read more: Thousands await elective surgery at Wollongong ahead of silly season

Representatives from four other Globe Lane businesses told the Mercury they had no objection to the van’s presence; several conceded they were further away than the Comic Cafe, and therefore unlikely to be affected. 

One, Espresso Warriors store manager Rachel Currie, said the van’s clientele “can cause issues – just loudly talking, swearing”, but that the van had been there longer than her business and she considered any lost coffee sales to be “paying it forward”.  

Last Wednesday’s police-led forum – an hour and a half of solid back-and-forth questioning between 30 attendees and nine local police representatives – was the third under the watch of Wollongong commander Chris Craner, who has signaled plans for similar events every 3-4 months. 

The next forum has yet to be announced.