The Victorian Government is expanding Melbourne’s safe injecting room trial.

A new centre at North Richmond has opened its doors after over a year of a controversial 18-month trial.

Victoria’s Mental Health Minister Martin Foley says the new, bigger facility with longer opening hours will stop more people from shooting up on the streets.

Some nearby residents have maintained their opposition, criticising the scheme for its proximity to the Richmond West Primary School.

The government has set up more security patrols and outreach services in the area in response to the community complaints about the trial.

Council workers are being sent out to collect drug paraphernalia from the streets twice a day.

Over 60,000 visits have been made to the centre, with nearly 3,000 people using it to inject drugs since it opened in June last year.

Staff have been able to safely manage over 1200 overdoses, medical director Nico Clark said.

“Many of those were severe overdoses, people not breathing, completely unconscious, revived by our staff,” he said.

Coroner’s reports have found virtually no reduction in heroin-related deaths around North Richmond in the centre's first six months of operation, but the state’s Coroner Audrey Jamieson has described the trial as essential.

He says six months is not enough time to judge the effect on drug-related harm in the area.