Western News: April 01, 2021

WESTERN NEWS Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Thursday April 1 2021 3
Work under way on new
clubrooms for Hornets
• By Chris Barclay
IT’S FINALLY game on at the
site of the new Halswell Hornets
rugby league club headquarters,
thanks to a vital funding
injection for the $2 million
project.
Work has recently got under
way on a former car park at
Halswell Domain, more than
a decade after
the original
clubrooms were
damaged by the
earthquakes.
Protracted discussions
with the
Jeff
Whittaker
club’s insurance
company delayed
the start of the
multi-purpose
building, while the eventual payout
still left a $400,000 shortfall.
Hornets vice-president Jeff
Whittaker said assistance from
the Lottery Grants Board, the
Rata Foundation and Canterbury
West Coast Air Rescue Trust
over the last three months got the
rebuild over the line.
“If they hadn’t come on board
to help we basically couldn’t have
got a loan or refinance to pay
the loan back to build the clubrooms,”
Whittaker said.
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BUILDING
BUZZ: The
Halswell
Hornets
rugby league
club’s new
rooms are
finally under
construction
at Halswell
Domain
thanks to
a funding
boost.
He hoped the new clubrooms,
which will also be utilised by
softball, touch rugby and possibly
netball, should be completed
by Christmas or the New Year.
When the new building is
ready the original must be demolished.
In the interim the Hornets
also had to build a storage room/
gym and changing sheds at the
Domain, costs that diminished
the insurance payout.
“It’s been quite sad in one way,”
Whittaker said.
“We were totally freehold, we
were insured. Then it was costing
$20,000 (a year) to insure the
clubrooms, storage and changing
sheds. We were basically nearly
going broke as a voluntary organisation
that was pretty much
only open Saturday afternoon’s
after footy.”
He credited devoted club
members for raising the funds to
cover those costs.
“The old brigade, our life
members have worked their butts
off to raise funds to get the clubrooms
up and running,” he said.
“They were running raffles on
a Thursday, Friday and Saturday
nights at the (Craythornes)
Halswell Tavern (Craythornes)
and doing barbecues just to raise
enough money to pay the insurance.”
Whittaker hoped the new clubrooms
would be used throughout
the week by sporting and community
organisations.
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Group formed to
help prevent crime
• By Bea Gooding
A COMMUNITY Safety
Initiative Working Group has
been formed to help crackdown
on increasing crime across three
western suburbs.
Avonhead, Russley and
Bishopdale were identified as
hot spots for vehicle-break ins,
stolen cars, smashed windows
and other petty crimes making
residents feel unsafe.
Organised by Christchurch
North Community Patrol and
Neighbourhood Support Canterbury,
with help from police
and the Fendalton-Waimairi-
Harewood Community Board,
the group aims to tackle this.
Patrol chairman Sam Hall said
partnering with Neighbourhood
Support meant residents on the
ground could provide information
about incidents that patrol
volunteers were unaware of.
Support members knew their
neighbourhoods better which
provided a much better picture
for patrollers to relay timely and
accurate information to police.
“It’s hard to say if it’s an
increase, it moves from area
to area. People seem to target
[places] within two to 5km of
where they’re living,” he said.
“Most of it is people breaking
Lunch and Dinner
into cars, smashing windows
and stolen cars. The Avonhead
community are getting concerned
about crime in the area,
so we’ve been patrolling hot
spots heavily in the past couple
of months.”
The group is in its early stages.
Initial meetings determined
possible next steps, like facilitating
informal feedback from
communities who could selfidentify
hot spots to focus on.
Police statistics did not clearly
show an increase, but mounting
posts on neighbourhood
Facebook groups conveyed a
different story.
While it was being reported on
social media, it was not necessarily
being reported to more
official sources.
Having a dedicated group
with links to community organisations
and police meant
it provided a different way for
residents to report crimes, while
learning how to keep themselves
safe and getting to know their
neighbours.
“These meetings are for us to
brainstorm and get feedback
from people on the ground.
Police are so busy nowadays,
so that’s where the community
patrol comes in,” Hall said.
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