S Turfrey-Davies

HELD to ransom by mourners. Held to ransom by bored youth. Held to ransom by a small group of undesirables. I have lived in Awatapu on and off for most of my life. Besides a few who ruin it for everyone, Awatapu is a nicer place than most would think.

The lack of response to residents’ police calls over burnouts is not a new thing. A few months back, not long after the police announced on the radio to call them if we saw any burnout activity, a tangi was held at Gateway Funeral Services.

People were all over the place and having a party, but the festivities didn’t really kick off until after the service. I understand that everyone mourns their dead in their own way, and this is their way, I guess.

Mourners streamed out into the road, showing off what they could do with their vehicles and bikes. I’m sure they thought it was awesome.

An elderly resident from my church, with COPD and, unfortunately, on this day downwind from Gateway, had their house filled with tyre smoke. With windows closed, they made their first call, to the police non-emergency line. Once they finally picked up and heard her concerns, they informed them that someone would be in the area once the police were free.

Over the next hour, while the burnouts continued, they made two more phone calls to 111 asking for help as they were now pretty much trapped in their house, and no one could even come to their house safely as the group had moved further down the road to outside the house. Both times she was told that the police were “on their way”.

After an hour of this onslaught, the group finally started to disperse and in their wake was a huge mess of rubber and glass strewn across the street from RDA to Edgewater Grove. The police did finally arrive, but most of the mourners had moved on.

The officers had been busy dealing with another tangi elsewhere and had only just got a few units available to respond to people’s calls.

The “easy rider” street cleaner was here the next day to clean up the mess left behind. Thank you so much, you are awesome.

We call when there are burnouts. We call when there are motorbikes tearing apart our parks. We are lucky to ever get a response. I have even seen police see this activity happening before them, but they clearly have better things to do and continue on their journey.

I do not blame Gateway Funeral Service for the actions of their patrons. They are simply providing a service that we need, but I do believe they should have never been allowed to operate in a residential area.

I know that people do drink and park terribly outside of Willetts in town, too, but when behaviour like this has started, the police are very quick to respond to those calls.

I do believe that if Gateway Funeral Service was still operating out at Gateway Drive that police would be more likely to respond quickly to a bunch of very angry business owners yelling down the phone over elderly residents simply asking for help.