Loop cameras and lights fast tracked for safety

Whangarei District Council contractor Nadeem Buksh fitting lights on the Pohe Island side of the Hatea Loop. They are due to be running in the next week. Photo / John Stone

Lighting and CCTV surveillance on a dark stretch on Hatea Loop has been installed and is due to be switched on in the next week.

Four CCTV cameras and 20 lighting poles, 13 of which contain twin lights, have been installed along Whangarei's Hatea Loop between the Riverside Skate Park and Te Matau a Pohe.

Whangarei District Council community services manager Owen Thomas said the lights and cameras are due to be running in the next week.

Council work on lighting the Pohe Island side of the loop was pushed forward about a month following the abduction and assault of a young woman jogging the loop on April 29.

Mr Thomas said he was pleased to see the lights and CCTV cameras installed.

"Everyone was very upset when the attack happened. The community rallied together. The council rallied together, the work has been done and to add to that there are more volunteers manning the screens at the police station. It's a case of the community pulling together so everyone knows the loop is a safe place," he said.

Mr Thomas said $100,000 went towards CCTV cameras.

He said the growth to the network meant the hardware at the police station, where the cameras were monitored, also had to be altered.

The cost of the lighting was $300,000.

Work on lighting the Pohe Island side of the loop was delayed by an old dump site in the area releasing potentially explosive methane gas.

Mr Thomas said those issues had been addressed.