Southern View: March 27, 2018

SOUTHERN VIEW Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Tuesday March 27 2018 7
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Report on bus lounge safety too late
Fire rages, homes at risk
• By Emily O’Connell
RECOMMENDATIONS in
a new report on anti-social
behaviour at the Riccarton bus
lounge may have come too late.
That’s because bad behaviour
in and around the lounge has
decreased.
The city council’s crime
prevention through
environmental
design report,
commissioned
in September
last year, will be
discussed today
by the Halswell-
Hornby-
Riccarton
Helen
Community
Board.
It makes 11
Broughton
recommendations to improve
the safety of people using the
lounge and surrounding area.
Community board deputy
chairwoman Helen Broughton
is aware youth issues have
decreased but says it’s
about making the area safer
“regardless.”
The lounge, on the corner of
Riccarton Rd and Division St,
has been plagued by youth issues
since it opened in December
ISSUES: A report outlining 11 recommendations to make the
Riccarton bus lounge safer may have come too late as youth
issues in the area have decreased.
2015. Riccarton Community
Constable Aaron Thorn told
Southern View on Friday the
only issue at the bus lounge had
been beggars harassing pedestrians.
Mrs Broughton hopes the
board can implement some of
the recommendations but says
funding could be an issue. She
said the decrease in anti-social
behaviour could make it less of a
funding priority.
The report also shows a decrease
in victimisations in the
aera over the past two years. In
2015 there were 356 incidents of
victimisation around Westfield
Report recommendations:
1. Turn the vacant cafe space
at the Riccarton Bus Lounge
into an information centre or
security staff area.
2. A new panning CCTV
camera on the east side
of Division St facing the
intersection with Riccarton
Rd and panning to Westfield
Riccarton entrance.
3. A new panning CCTV
camera facing west, to be
installed under the canopy
above Riccarton Rd entrance
of the bus lounge.
4. All footage from CCTV
cameras to be recorded for
a period of time, and a sign
indicating that footage is being
recorded to be displayed to
the public as a deterrent.
5. An additional CCTV display
monitor in the window of the
bus lounge facing Division St.
6. Bus lounge security staff
to be given access to recorded
footage and the panning
Riccarton, the bus lounge and
Division St.
This decreased last year to 345.
The reports says “trends indicate
higher reported incidents over
the mid to late afternoons of
weekdays and Saturdays.”
The report found continued
controls so they can assist
police.
7. An external water tap
outside the second bus lounge
on Riccarton Rd.
8. Maintain ongoing
engagement with Westfield
Riccarton owners and
managers in terms of creating
a safer environment.
9. Maintain ongoing
engagement with the owner
of the vacant building adjacent
the second bus lounge to
ensure tagging is removed and
the area is safe and clean.
10. A further review should
be undertaken at key stages of
post-construction such as six
months and one year.
11. Wider crime prevention
solutions are likely to be
more effective if undertaken
in partnership with local
communities, businesses,
churches, service organisations
and emergency services.
engagement between police,
security staff, beggars and bus
lounge users has proved successful
in reducing the number and
severity of incidents.
The community board will
now decide what its next steps
will be.
Community fruit tree ‘bank’ mooted
• By Sarla Donovan
SUMNER MAN Keith Hay wants
to establish a ‘bank’ of heritage
stone fruit trees in the suburb.
Mr Hay is a member of the Sumner
Community Gardens, which
in the winter of 2014 planted a
‘food forest’ in the grounds of
Van Asch Deaf Education Centre,
where the old laundry block was.
The forest idea involves planting
in layers, from larger trees like
pear and plum, down to smaller
dwarf varieties and bushes such as
gooseberry, raspberry and currant.
After seven years, the forest
should become self-sustaining,
said co-ordinator Kathryn Newbery.
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Mr Hay wasn’t there for the original
plantings but has since moved
into the suburb from Opawa and is
particularly interested in the fruit
trees.
He and his wife had a small
orchard in Opawa Rd and he grew
up on his parents Ian and Evelyn’s
Horotane Valley orchard during
the 1950s and ’60s.
Many of the commercial
varieties they grew have since
disappeared, and he is keen to reestablish
them.
This involves sourcing bud wood
or grafting wood from plum trees
and apricot trees – particularly
those grown commercially or
locally in Horotane Valley and
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Heathcote Valley in the 1940s
through to the late 1970s.
They include early Australian
import roxburgh red, moorpark
from England, Californian variety
newcastle, hemkirk, dullins, royal
and steven’s favourite. Some of
these still be bought in nurseries, he
said, but others are more elusive.
Ms Newbery said Mr Hay coming
on board at the community
garden had provided a perfect
opportunity to graft onto the food
forest’s existing root stock and
start increasing the diversity of
what was currently there.
•If you can help phone Kevin
Hay on 326 7280 or 021 213
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BOUNTY: Members of the Sumner Community Gardens
(left to right) – Rosie Hay, Suzy and Bryan Kaschula, and
Kevin Hay.
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