Melbourne Mayor Robert Doyle says the rough sleepers will be back outside Flinders St

Lord Mayor Robert Doyle says he believes the rough sleepers will be back outside Flinders Street Station.

Police moved in yesterday afternoon forcibly removing the group which ended up with three officers being injured and five people arrested.

Some of the homeless have accepted emergency accommodation but others have set up camps elsewhere in the city, including on the lawns outside St. Paul’s.

But Dr Doyle said they’d ‘left it too long’ and should have acted sooner.

‘I have no doubt that it will – that’s why I’m not a great advocate for move on laws.’

‘We have dealt with this at Enterprise Park, then we dealt with it at Treasury Gardens, then we dealt with it at City Square.

‘We are not discharging these people to accommodation that is permanent, and therefore they are going to come back.’

He also told Neil Mitchell he supported a permanent memorial or place of reflection to remember the victims of the Bourke Street tragedy.

Cr Doyle said there were 3000 soft toys at the memorial site.

‘I’d very much like a display of those cards for the anniversary,’ he said.

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