The Auckland township that says it’s terrorised by alcoholics

Thursday, 25 January 2024

A new New World supermarket is coming to Point Chevalier, on Great North Rd.

It’s going to be up to the community to get organised and respond to a growing vagrant problem as police struggle to muster numbers, Point Chevalier residents were told.

The bowls club was packed wall to wall as residents met to discuss the issue of their town square having become forlorn and frequented by drunken drifters since its library closed.

Chemist Ian Hutchinson said it had affected foot traffic as customers feared intimidation and abuse from people occupying the square.

“They drink with impunity and get more obnoxious as the day goes on. There are alcohol ban signs, but who enforces it?”

There were murmurs of agreement among the crowd as Hutchinson described how vagrants would arrive on the bus from New Lynn and raid the supermarket for beers.

“They shoplift trolley loads of goods, and security guards tell the public not to challenge them.”

Residents at a meeting in Pt Chevalier said their town square had become overrun with crime since the library closed.

Owner of the Greek House Restaurant Emran Al Dablan said he had begun escorting diners to their vehicles after their meals to keep them safe.

“I actually nearly got stabbed right in front of the restaurant. Luckily, I could defend myself, but if it had been someone else, they could easily be dead,” he said.

A staff member from Sages Indian Restaurant said the family business had been there for 30 years and they had watched the township become less safe since the police station closed.

“My uncle is attached to our customers, and we see you getting harassed and it breaks our heart,” she said.

Senior sergeant Alan Rowland was quick to dash any misplaced hopes of an increased police presence any time soon.

Senior sergeant Alan Rowland told residents that police were short-staffed.

“I will kill the elephant in the room, and tell you that one thing I’m not going to promise is a policeman in Pt Chev shops every day” he told the crowd. “I’m just being realistic.”

He said there was a single “community team” for an area covering from Blockhouse Bay to Point Chevalier, including Avondale.

Officers from the central city were on a six week roster, two weeks out of which they would come and spend in the area. The rest of the time there would be few if any patrolling police.

“If, for argument’s sake, there is a homicide in Mt Wellington, they will probably go over there and we won’t get them at all.”

Rowland said residents should report any and all crime to 105 as an increase in complaints would help guide allocation of future resources.

Merril Bourne of Community Patrol NZ strongly encouraged the crowd of upper middle class homeowners to put their enthusiasm where the mouth was and volunteer.

“Police’s hands are tied. There are 10,000 front line officers and if you doubled them tomorrow, there still wouldn’t be enough,” she said.

Bourne said the patrol had 23 members in Mt Roskill, and had been patrolling Pt Chevalier for five years despite never having had a local volunteer.

A community meeting at the Pt Chevalier Bowls Club was packed from wall to wall as residents discussed how to take back their town from vagrants.

“Come on Pt Chev, you can show support. You’ve come to this meeting, now you’ve got to take it further, please.”

Patrol volunteers are only asked to help out for four hours once a month, she said.

“When you get regular patrols, crime reduces because it’s a visual presence of a marked vehicle.”

Albert-Eden Local Board chair Margi Watson said Pt Chevalier was a bit “gnarly” at the moment, but said plans for a new library and community hub were on the way.

Point Chevalier residents say their township square has become overrun with vagrants who flout a liquor ban since the library closed.

“I feel your pain, because I experience it too. I walk into the supermarket and get called a motherf…er.”

Both Watson and MP for Mt Albert Helen White suggested to the crowd they could look at alcohol restrictions in the area, whether that was trying to reduce the hours the supermarket could sell alcohol or opposing the renewal of a store on Premier Avenue.

However, residents were mixed on that idea with one woman saying she didn’t know where she would get her Pinot from if they shut down the shop down the road from her.

“We all drink, but we don’t all hang around the square,” said another.

Another resident, William Fremlin, who said he was pursuing a career with the Department of Corrections asked the crowd to try to have compassion for people on the street.

“I hang out with half of those people, and most of them are hungry. Some of them are alcoholics and opportunists, but other genuinely just need hope given back to them,” he said.

“We need a non profit organisation setting up meals and cups of tea in the centre, but all I’m hearing is that it’s alcoholics.”