A $6 million crime prevention programme, managed by police, is installing bollards and similar measures to prevent ram raids. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
An Auckland community where a dairy worker died in a brutal attack last year is bitterly disappointed it will not get government funding to prevent street-level crime.
It has been nine months since Janak Patel was fatally stabbed outside the Rose Cottage Dairy in Sandringham, sparking a nationwide outcry and calls for the government to do more to combat crime.
Shortly after, the government announced it would give Auckland Council $2 million - a one-off payment to fund crime prevention.
But the Sandringham Business Association (SBA) is not among the business groups that will automatically get a share of the funding.
SBA general manager Mark Scherer was worried the community would not see a cent.
"We really would like that money to go to the much smaller areas like Sandringham or Mt Albert or Pt Chev," he said.
Half of the $2 million funding is going to 50 Business Improvement Districts - large town centres which collect targeted rates from their business community.
Scherer said Sandringham was too small to become such a district, so it missed out on the crime prevention funding.
The other half of the funding goes to the city's 21 local boards, with Sandringham's area Albert-Eden Local Board getting $53,000, significantly less than the two biggest town centres.
Scherer said there would be many projects vying for that funding.
"We hope we get a chunk of that $50,000 but we're deeply disappointed ... at the way the $2 million is divvied up around Auckland," Scherer said.
"They've got to divide that amongst all the different areas, everything from Epsom through to Pt Chev, Kingsland through to Mt Roskill sort of thing - $50,000 is not going to go far.
"It's insanely frustrating."
Flowers laid in memory of Janak Patel outside the Rose Cottage Dairy in Sandringham in November last year. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
The way Auckland Council has allocated the crime prevention funding - at the mayor's directive - means central Auckland business group Heart of the City will get $155,000 and the Newmarket Business Association will get $97,000.
Both associations spent more than $500,000 on security measures last year.
Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck said the new funding was needed.
"We played no role in how this was allocated. We haven't seen allocation data, we understand it was based on spend over the last three years and that's how the allocation was done. Safety is really important and is a concern to our members."
Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck. Photo: Supplied / HOTC
However, small town centres were also battling crime and should not miss out, Beck said.
"I sincerely hope that the smaller areas, like the Sandringhams, don't miss out and that they can access funding ... from other initiatives. It's really important that there is funding, resources and policy to support improvements to safety across our region, our town centres and our city centre."
Newmarket Business Association chief executive Mark Knoff-Thomas agreed.
"There are some parts of Auckland that don't have the ability to provide infrastructure or security services and they absolutely need the help to establish that, because ... I think by all accounts things are going to get worse before they get better."
The death of Janak Patel prompted protests, with demands for better security for dairy and retail workers, outside then-prime minister Jacinda Ardern's electorate office in Mt Albert, Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Finn Blackwell
Albert-Eden Local Board encompasses Sandringham and many central suburbs, where 100,000 people live.
Board chair Margi Watson said the crime prevention funding would be spread thinly and have limited impact.
"The issue is large, with multiple parties around what needs to happen with prevention ... so $53,000 is not enough to respond to and be proactively responding to all the issues in Albert Eden," she said.
"It's a drop in the bucket."
Watson would have liked the funding to be allocated based on crime data, which would have placed the local board second in line behind Waitematā, which encompasses the city centre.
"One of the things I thought was really important was it related to crime data occurring across the city. We know there are more issues in some areas than others. But that's not how it played out."
The funding had taken too long to allocate, she said.
"That money was made available by the government late last year. We haven't got it out the door yet and it will probably be several months before it gets out the door."
Council staff would provide information to the local board, to help decide which projects to fund, Watson said.
"We want to make sure we get the best outcomes for the community but acknowledge the sum is so small that it's difficult."
