Council money for drugs

WAITOMO District Council is proposing to spend $200,000 in Better Off funding on drugs – fighting their use in Te Kūiti, that is.

The Government Better Off funding will provide a war chest for a recent community initiative to arrest what some residents say are growing behavioural issues and crime stemming from drug use.

There have been two community meetings focused on the issue, Mayor John Robertson said at last week’s council meeting.

The first meeting was with angry people talking about crime, the second meeting last week, focused on solutions.

“We had a preliminary meeting; police came to council here to help design what we would be talking about at the public meeting,” John said.

The police offered to talk about crime and drugs and to help frame up what the council might do with $200,000 in Better Off funding that the previous council wanted to use for joint initiatives around helping people with drugs.

“What we haven’t done is get to understand what that might look like, what you would spend the $200,000 on,” John said.

“So, the police have offered to have someone come in and spend some serious time helping us frame up what that looks like.”

Councillors around the table said they were unaware of the second meeting and had not been informed of it beforehand.