Hataitai Residents Association 1 March 2022 Meeting Minutes
Present: Zandra Brickhill, Brian Dawson, Emma Duffy, Sarah Free (WCC Councillor), Elizabeth Henry, Sonya Rafter, Jane Scoular, Isaac Woodbridge,
Apologies: Martin Woodbridge
Agenda
Graffiti and car vandalism around Hataitai
- The group discussed recent car break-ins, crime and graffiti around the neighbourhood.
- Sarah Free said there is limited things the Council can do around this as it falls into the Police area.
- Sarah encouraged us to use Neighbours Day to connect with neighbours and exchange contact details. This can help build connected communities who can report any suspicious activity or support each other e.g. one property might rig up a camera or security lights for their front yard which might also deter someone from breaking into a neighbours car (people often live upstairs from the road so it can be difficult to install lights/cameras near stairs).
- This led to a discussion about Neighbourhood Watch Groups for different streets and how some streets have Facebook Groups set up to notify each other if they see criminal activity.
- The Council works with Wellington Electricity to install new streetlights. This can take time and often involves multiple requests to get lights installed.
- Brian Dawson said Paul Eagle is meeting the Wellington Area Commander Dean Silvester to discuss the issue.
- Police need video footage to charge someone.
- All agreed people should report any crime to Police even if they think it won’t have any effect. Reporting crime helps Police track crime patterns and helps direct resourcing.
- Wellington South Community Patrol is rostered on Friday and Saturday nights from 10pm-2am. They also do a day patrol on Thursday.
- The Community Patrol is aware of the crime problem and checks in with Police Command about potential areas to focus on. Often the crime occurs after the Patrol has completed their route i.e. after 2am.
- Sarah asked if graffiti is getting worse. All commented on the Four Square roller door not having graffiti removed despite it being there for months. Isaac pointed out Four Square is a private business so the Council may not have the authority to remove the graffiti. Also once the roller door is up the graffiti is out of sight possibly leading to the Four Square owners forgetting it’s there.
- Sarah will follow up the 24 hour graffiti response service (whereby reported graffiti is cleaned up within a day).
Actions/Ideas
- Set up a Building Stronger Communities meeting with the Kilbirnie Community Constable to discuss strategies residents can use to deter crime. Also provide advice on what to do if someone sees a crime happening. Martin to action.
- Organise new Neighbourhood Watch signs for people to collect and display round Hataitai Martin to action.
- Encourage Ketan at the Four Square to paint over the graffiti on the roller door.All
Items from previous meetings
Newsletter/HRA publicity
Tim sent out the first HRA Mailchimp newsletter campaign for March. Looks like a couple of people received it. Tim will continue this for the next couple of months to see if newsletter encourages people to turn up to meetings.
Tim also noticed several posts about the meeting on the Hataitai Help page. Some asked whether the meetings were live streamed for people unable to attend in person (e.g. immune-compromised). This could be something to consider for future meetings.
The meeting ended about 8.15pm.