Watchful eyes out in the country

BEWARE: With the sign that warns would-be ne'er-do-wells on Marahau Rd, Maxwell are (from left) local liaison Kate Lynch, Neighbourhood Support chairperson Shirley Forward and field officer Sumita Dale. PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS

Moves are afoot to tighten up safety for rural properties, with the help of Neighbourhood Support Whanganui and an initiative of local residents.
It came about after some incidents over the past couple of months. Kate Lynch, now the Maxwell Neighbourhood Support Whanganui liaison, says she approached Senior Sergeant Andrew McDonald who was in charge of a case of stock and vehicle theft in Waverley. "He strongly suggested we form a Neighbourhood Support Group."
Kate spoke to the people on Marahau and Nukumaru roads and it ballooned from there.
"It's a very simple structure they suggest for us as a community," says Kate, "For every road we have a contact and it's their job to get the neighbours on board, and if anything happens, they are my road contact, just the same as a street contact in town."
Email makes contact easy, says Kate.
"Every week Neighbourhood Support puts out a one-page update of what's been happening in the community, so we'll know how many burglaries and break-ins and we'll know what the hot items are. For example, the hot item of the moment is taking fuel from cars."
The Maxwell group started with just two roads which were experiencing trouble, but now extends from Kai Iwi Beach to Waitotara, but not including Mowhanau or Waitotara communities. "It's the space in between," says Kate.
The Maxwell community is setting up surveillance cameras and making sure the public is aware of them.
"The aim is to have every side road covered with cameras. We will apply for some grants but the community feels strongly enough about our security that we'll pay for it if we have to."
Kate says there has been a social bonus to what started as a security procedure.
"We have all - or nearly all - come together and met each other. Some hadn't met their neighbours before, and that can happen in a rural setting." She says with the demise of local town halls, schools and social events, as well as neighbours assisting each other with necessary farm jobs like haymaking rural dwellers are becoming a lot more insular.
"That's been the big thing, to get people together and connected," says Neighbourhood Support field officer Sumita Dale. "With Kate we're really lucky to have someone who is here, passionate about this area, and the way we can help is to provide structure for the group out here. Just with having our contact sheets and how we do it in other rural areas with information sharing. That's where we've been able to work together quite well."
Neighbourhood Support Whanganui covers an area from Marton to Waverley and inland. There is already a similar support structure in Mowhanau.
"We have a person who has taken on the role of co-ordinator for the whole village, but within the streets there are contact people, much like Kate's doing here. The idea is to put them all the way round the rural areas," says Sumita.
Neighbourhood Support developed a new database system last year so all residents in a support area are able to be instantly contacted.
"There's a national push on at the moment with the police because of rural crime," Shirley Forward, Neighbourhood Support Whanganui chairperson says.
"The message from us is that now we are a connected community," says Kate. "We've got our signage up, we've got some cameras working and we're getting a whole lot more. "We are gathering our own database of who we are so we will know who isn't a regular and who should not be around. We'll monitor that instantly and feed it straight back to the police.