Most of the incidents in February and March occurred at the council's main building on Guyton St. Photo / NZME
Most of the incidents in February and March occurred at the council's main building on Guyton St. Photo / NZME
The delivery of a mock Molotov cocktail is the latest act of threatening behaviour directed at Whanganui‘s council.
In a report, Whanganui District Council health, safety and wellbeing manager Olivia McQuillan said during February and March, there were 12 behavioural incidents, mostly at the main council building on Guyton St.
Other than the Molotov cocktail, which was left at the site, several incidents involved serious threats, including verbal threats of violence and dangerous driving, it said.
“That’s to make sure we don’t have vulnerable staff exposed while working on their own, which is always an aggravating factor to those kinds of incidents,” he said.
His report to the committee said there had been increased safety and de-escalation training for staff and a redesign of the customer services area.
“One additional thing we’re about to start looking at is some kind of persona work around the types of customers we receive,” he told councillors.
“Putting the fence at the top of the cliff rather than the training at the bottom of the cliff.”
Earlier this year, Langford received an email demanding he leave his office immediately and place himself under house arrest.
If he did not comply, he “would be taken to an undisclosed location”.
Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe told the Chronicle the person behind the mock Molotov cocktail was also responsible for a series of threatening notes.
“There was one particular individual who spiked the numbers, but I would say the majority of our community is pretty happy with where things are at,” he said.
“But any person who harasses our frontline staff is one too many.
“I pop down personally to see how they are doing, and they seem to be in a much better place than they were when those incidents happened a few weeks ago.”
Mayor Andrew Tripe says one person "spiked the numbers" of threatening behaviour incidents. Photo / NZME
Langford’s report said following a period of escalation over two weeks, the perpetrator was arrested by police.
He told the committee he hoped the low rates increase for 2025/26 (an average of 2.2%) would “take the vitriol out of some people’s sails”.
“I’m sure there is more we can do to be a friendlier, easier organisation to do business with so people don’t get quite so cross in the first place.”
McQuillan told the committee that de-escalation training was being rolled out across all the council’s facilities, including the Splash Centre and iSite building.
There were two incidents at the Splash Centre in February and one at a library in March.
She said it was easy for staff to access the training, which required a discussion with a manager or putting in a request.
Councillor Peter Oskam asked if elected members would be included in it and, if so, “when will the invite go out?”.
Langford said something would be put in place.
Tripe said the vast majority of interactions with the council were positive, but some were more stressful than others.
“Coming to get a library book wouldn’t have too many issues, but then there is having to pay a fine or something like that.
“Councils across the country have experienced the same issues that we have.”
Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.
