City Safe Guardians making Rotorua CBD safer - survey
Results from a Rotorua District Council survey reveal that retailers believe the council’s City Safe Guardians play an important role in helping keep the central city safe - especially when it comes to keeping "riff raff" in line, as one retailer put it.
The council surveyed CBD retail and business outlets in January to gather their views on the City Safe Guardians initiative over the course of 2012.
Mayor Kevin Winters said that from 300 survey forms sent out, 126 (42%) businesses had taken the opportunity to provide the council with feedback. He said the responses had been very supportive of City Safe Guardians.
"These survey results indicate the vast majority - 89% of respondents - believe the council’s City Safe Guardian team has had a positive impact on public perceptions of safety in the central city area, which is a very pleasing endorsement of this council programme.
In this year’s survey retailers and businesses thought the Guardians’ most important function was crime prevention, while last year when surveyed they said the Guardians’ key role was to provide a physical presence."
More than 90% (114 survey respondents) believed the programme should continue beyond June 2013, while just 1.5 % (2) did not support continuation, and 1.5% (2) were unsure.
Mr Winters said an overwhelming majority of respondents indicated that they had received visits and information from City Safe Guardian team members, and feedback from comments made in the survey were very positive.
"Their comments endorsed the City Safe Guardian programme as being instrumental in creating a safer environment in the CBD.
"One retailer said ‘they keep the 'riff raff' in line and get trouble makers to move along so they’re not putting shoppers off coming into town.’ And that seems to be the general consensus among most of our CBD businesses.
"Retailers have told us that our City Safe Guardians have assisted them with shoplifters and theft reduction, have dealt with unpleasant behaviour and fighting, given help and assistance to many tourists, and generally have helped to alleviate retailers’ feelings of anxiety when working alone.
"We’re really pleased that this council initiative has had such a positive response from local retailers and we have heard loud and clear their emphatic request for the City Safe Guardian programme to continue in the future," Mr Winters said.
"Ultimately that’s a decision for all elected members to make as part of the current process for developing our annual plan and budgets for the next financial year."
comments powered by Disqus