Pride campaign to be rolled out to other city areas

Phil Gillbanks has won praise for his approach.

A successful police campaign to improve community pride in Papamoa's Hartford Ave could be rolled out into other lower socio-economic areas of Tauranga.

The sergeant in charge of the Papamoa Police Station Phil Gillbanks yesterday detailed how they had managed to turn around community perceptions of neighbourhoods in and around Hartford Ave.

The area was looking tidier thanks to people pitching in at a "neighbours' day" working bee last month, with 119 residents now wanting to become involved in Neighbourhood Support groups.

Local Papamoa residents and Western Bay of Plenty Police got involved in the Neighbours Day working bee at the Lynn Grove grass roundabout on March 28. Photo/Brent Jansen

He told the council's community development committee that police planned to roll out the initiative to other areas of the city, including Links Ave at Mount Maunganui.

Mr Gillbanks said he and Western Bay police commander Inspector Clifford Paxton wanted to turn around community perceptions in the area of Hartford Ave and try to take it out of its current way of thinking.

There were issues with young people, and patched gangs were starting to take a foothold.

After a letter box drop announcing that police would be door knocking and running a survey, it was found that the biggest issues for residents were how the area looked, roaming dogs and the prevalence of patched gang members.

"The biggest issue was roaming dogs."

It led to a crackdown by council dog control officers, the installation of bollards to stop cars being parked on grassed road verges, and low-cost initiatives to tidy the place up involving the community.

A second letter box drop announced that a neighbours' day would be held on March 28 in which residents pitched in to paint the front fence of Hartford Ave Reserve, decorate the playground with murals and prepare the grass roundabout with Lynn Grove for new gardens.

Mr Gillbanks said it brought the community out to take a pride in their neighbourhood. "It looks a lot better and the general feeling is that people do care and they want to make a bit of an effort." A closed-circuit TV camera will be installed on the Lynn Grove/Hartford Ave roundabout to monitor traffic, aimed particularly at the behaviour of drivers doing burnouts.

Police were also working with the YMCA to introduce youth programmes into the area.

Mr Gillbanks said the initiative was because police did not want to be the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.

Committee chairman Steve Morris said the residents of Papamoa were extremely appreciative of Sergeant Gillbanks' approach to policing.