Parramatta City Council this week ignored its own staff recommendation and voted to stop the charity drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre from opening on the weekend. The shutdown comes despite there being no complaints or police objections made after a nine-month trial of the Wayback centre operating from 9.30am to 4pm on Saturday. It also follows a NSW Land and Environment court ruling against the council to allow the trial to take place. Acting Justice Tim Moore said the public interest in extending the centre's hours was "overwhelmingly great" and a matter of "societal protection as well as societal responsibility". At the meeting this week, Liberal councillor John Chedid​ said of people with drug addictions: "They come and lay here, sunbake in our beautiful Centenary Square. I think we've done our fair share of helping people."

Cr Chedid said he respected services such as Wayback but they should be moved out of the city centre "just like we encouraged brothels to be in industrial areas". "That's not working against helping people get back on their feet," he said. "This is not about being critical of the organisation. There is a right place and right time and Saturday is not the right time. "I'm sure 95 per cent of the people that go there are good, decent citizens but there is some element of criminal activity there." Another Liberal councillor, Jean Pierre Abood, said residents "definitely don't want this on a Saturday". The council received no submissions after about 100 letters were sent to homes and businesses and notices were put in the paper and on site about the extended hours.

The centre has operated out of a heritage-listed bungalow in the main strip of Harris Park from Monday to Friday for about 22 years. Wayback has about 60 clients, none of whom live on site, and the centre does not dispense drugs like methadone. Most of the clients are referred to it as part of court or corrective services programs and attend group or individual therapy sessions there. For Keith, the councillor's comments were hurtful and untrue. He is now more reliant than ever on attending the Wayback centre on Saturdays as he studies community services at TAFE during the week. "My drug use and and abuse was 24/7 and getting well requires 24/7 vigilance," he said.

"It's not a 9 to 6, Monday to Friday solution. Friday and Saturday nights are my most vulnerable parts of the week." Wayback chief executive and former police officer Ray Brindley​ said he was "absolutely disgusted" by the comments at the council meeting. "The clients are all someone's brother and sister, son and daughter, and as a society we have a responsibility to manage drug addiction and try to correct it," Mr Brindley said. "The clients need our services to be active all the time. It does not work to say you come in here five days and two days a week you do whatever you want." Mr Brindley said it was important not to push people battling addiction to the fringes of the city because they needed rehab centres accessible by public transport and to feel part of society, not isolated from it.

Wayback plans to take the council to court again to allow the permanent extension The council lost the previous case, when there was two submissions and a petition against the extended services, and was ordered to pay part of Wayback's costs. Its own legal fees amounted to about $40,000. Acting Justice Moore said: "...The public interest in providing an extension to the hours of the service is so overwhelmingly great that any impact on the neighbouring residents that I might have inadvertently not observed or taken into account is far superseded by that public benefit." *Not his real name