At the meeting last week, from left, meeting organiser Grace Everitt, Waikato district representative for Neighbourhood Support Chris Smith and Waitomo deputy mayor Allan Goddard. PHOTO PAUL CHARMAN
Like many communities, Te Kūiti is struggling a bit with anti-social behaviour and the increase in crime, says the Waikato district representative for Neighbourhood Support, Chris Smith.
That was his impression following a meeting to discuss these issues at the Les Munro Centre last week.
“Obviously, these kinds of problems can make people feel pretty wary and even at times unsafe in their homes,” Chris added.
“We’re finding that many people are now more reluctant to talk to the police [about incidents] because they are conscious of ramifications if they do so. And that’s not just in Te Kūiti – it’s also the situation nationally.”
However, Chris was confident that the unity and contacts that came from joining a neighbourhood support group went some way toward alleviating feelings of fear and isolation.
“It certainly helps to get a community to work together in common cause to solve these problems.
“The first step toward turning things around is to become aware of who your neighbours are and to become conscious of their wellbeing.”
He had seen this formula work in many parts of the Waikato.
“There are lots of examples of communities working together to stop crime and I believe that is one of the big outcomes of establishing Neighbourhood Support.”
Te Kūiti woman Grace Everitt organised the meeting following several incidents in which she had been forced to stand up to unruly young people driving cars and riding motorcycles in her neighbourhood.
Grace said she had received positive comments and much encouragement following the publication of a report on the meeting in the King Country News last week.
Grace has been in contact with Te Kūiti Community House Trust regarding further support and the possibility of providing a meeting venue.
“Once an offence has been committed, the idea is to communicate that to the police as well as others in the Neighbourhood Support group for your street.
“There are likely to be better outcomes produced when incidents are phoned into the police by multiple people in a given area,” Grace said.
Waitomo deputy mayor Allan Goddard, who also attended the meeting last week, thought it was definitely a good idea to get the Neighbourhood Support concept up and running in Te Kūiti.
“It was something that was quite common for a while here [when called Neighbourhood Watch], but then it sort of faded away a bit,” Allan recalled.
“But given the current situation and amount of support out there it would be good to reinstate it. As they said at the meeting, it only needs to be street by street. It doesn’t have to be large numbers of people getting together initially. It could be just a couple of neighbours to start with and then you build on that.”
For more information contact Grace Everitt: (Grace’s email was given incorrectly in last week’s paper) It is as follows: grace.everitt@hotmail.co.nz
