Move to city from 'unsafe' Kaitaia

Young mum and hair stylist Tawhina Peat is happy to have moved from her hometown Kaitaia in Northland. Photo/ Lin Ferguson

Tawhina Peat, a young mum and hairdresser living and working in Whanganui, is sad to hear that her home town of Kaitaia is suffering along with the rest of Northland because of the escalating youth crime.

"It's always been pretty bad up there, but it's got worse," she said.

"There are not enough police and really the place has become unsafe."

With two small sons - Kaius, still a baby, and Kade, aged six - Tawhina has moved to Whanganui and says the River City is a far better option for the family.

"I miss Kaitaia. It's my home town and I have have family and friends living and they will never move."

Whanganui is the "big city" in comparison, she said.

"We are enjoying Whanganui. I have got to like it more than I thought I would when we first came here 18 months ago."

A local newspaper said a police "flying squad" system was set up between the Northland towns of Kaikohe, Kaitaia and Kawakawa to maintain order in the mid north, but it wasn't working.

Police said earlier the criminals in the towns were getting younger and bolder. Communities were at the mercy of marauding youth gangs. "It really is bad. I certainly wouldn't want to live back there yet.

It's frightening for everyone," Tawhina said.

Reorganisation of staff and stations in the Mid North earlier this year was supposed to get more officers out from behind their desks and on to the streets, newspapers reports said.
But crime had picked up through the north and there were no police, Tawhina said.
"It's not good for these small communities.

It's sad because they are nice places to live."

And Northland MP Winston Peters told reporters earlier he had been accosted by a teenager in Kaitaia, asking for cash.

"I got stopped on the street by a kid in a school uniform asking if I had any money. That's the sort of attitude we've got building up, and it's not doing our province any good whatsoever."

Tawhina agrees and said going home was not an option for her and her family for a while.
"It needs to settle up there before we will go back."

After working as a senior stylist in the Whanganui CBD Tawhina has recently moved to a smaller salon in Whanganui East.

"I didn't want to be in the middle of town anymore. I'm a small town girl at heart and this great for me."