The meeting, held last night at the Pat Hughes Community Hall, was expected to draw a big crowd but the fireworks started before the first speaker took the podium .

Maitland MP Frank Terenzini said he would attend to support the work of police, Maitland Mayor Peter Blackmore said he was disappointed the meeting was scheduled on the same night as a Maitland City Council meeting and the presence of Liberal police spokesman Mike Gallacher was confirmed.

Meeting organiser Philip Penfold conceded he was planning to run for council and had made an application to stand as a Liberal Party candidate, he said the gathering was community-based and the Tuesday night timing was not intended to coincide with the regular council meeting.

He said residents wanted the meeting to be held quickly after a spate of violent attacks and thousands of flyers were already distributed before the scheduling clash was realised.

“I don’t want the whole thing to be caught up in the politics of it all,” Mr Penfold said.

“The purpose of the meeting is to bring interested stake holders together.

“It’s not about bashing any party.”

Mr Terenzini and Senior Constable Brian Coffey were scheduled to attend the meeting and Mr Terenzini said he would attend to support local police.

“I want to be there to make sure that the organisers are not using this as a political opportunity to take a swipe at our hard working local police,” he said.

“It’s important that this issue is approached calmly and sensibly.

“It would be irresponsible for any elected representatives to use this issue to whip up hysteria for political purposes.”

Mr Terenzini said crime was either stable or falling in 14 of 17 categories, five new probationary constables had started work in the area in the past few months, and the Iemma Government had delivered a Mobile Police Station to target crime hotspots and created a new Local Area Command to boost efficiency.

Cr Blackmore said it was unfortunate interested councillors might not be able to attend the community meeting, to which he was only invited yesterday.

“That’s rather disappointing.

“I have said if there are other meetings scheduled, I would only be too pleased to attend, provided it doesn’t fall on a local council meeting.”

Mr Penfold said he first emailed council’s generic email address last Thursday before directing another inquiry to the general manager’s office.