Date posted: February 10, 2017
Dear NeighboursWe have been lucky to have had a relatively quiet Holiday Season in terms of housebreakings, especially when compared with most of Fishoek although a serious incident of shoplifting at the Farm Village was noted and the repeated theft of stock from Avondrustvlei Farm is a major concern.
Incidents
Aside from this, there were two incidents in December:
- On the 14th a bicycle was stolen from a house in Willoughby Drive overnight.
- On the 16th items were stolen from a veranda and an outbuilding in Mountain Rd, also overnight, when the owners (and dog) were away.
On January 18 a house in Poplar Rd was broken into, mid-morning whilst the residents were at work.
In all three of these incidents it would seem that particular vulnerabilities had been noted and were acted upon as soon as the opportunities arose. This unfortunately raises the very likely possibility that our homes are being looked over more often than we realise and it is a challenge to all of us to constantly work on ensuring that we do maintain household security as much as possible, as this is something that benefits everyone in the area.
It is excellent to hear the communication on various channels when a person, whose behaviour has raised concern, is noted by others and responded to appropriately. There also seems to be a high level of civility, sensitivity to the rights of everyone who may be in our area, as well as care in the use of language amongst the vast majority of our members on social media and this is something we would like to acknowledge and maintain.
Arrests
We were delighted to hear news this week of the very successful identification and tracking of two vehicles that were being used in “crowbar-gang” style housebreakings, resulting in major arrests. This was largely attributable to SMNW members linking multiple false number plates with the suspect vehicle and then placing the information on the network of Licence Plate Recognition (LPR) Camera users with the alarm being raised when the vehicles triggered cameras in Simonstown. This once again demonstrates the effectiveness of coordinated surveillance systems and we look forward to collaboration further with our friends in SMNW and other NW’s in the valley on our Watchcom Project, which is developing a section of the Community Centre as a well-equipped communications and monitoring centre.
Community Centre
We are very grateful to Patty Fennell who is now taking responsibility for driving the development of the Community Centre and WatchCom Building. This is progressing steadily and I am sure many will have noticed the improvements in appearance of the building itself and its grounds as well as the new electric gate and the ADT vehicles – they will in future be using this building for shift changes and refreshment stops. Our Fire Volunteers have installed a container behind the building and “On the Verge” are in the process of developing a nursery. We are making steady progress with work inside the building and in addition to the WatchCom area we have completed work on the kitchen area and a meeting room is almost ready for use.
The next steps involve developing the larger rooms on the eastern side of the building into a community hall which we hope will become a wonderful facility for everyone in the community to use. The options are endless: public meetings, club events, yoga classes, barn dances – you name it! We plan to soon make available a sketch-up of our vision of how we would like the community centre to be but ideally the centre should be for everyone in the Noordhoek Community so we are inviting all interested individuals, groups and organisations to come and get involved in this wonderful project. If you are interested please contact Patty: pattyf@webafrica.org.za . We firmly believe that a strong and united community is a safe one and this is a great way to build it!
NRPA Committee Nominations
On that note we would like to support the call by the Noordhoek Ratepayer’s Association (NRPA) for Noordhoek Homeowners to come forward for nominations to their committee. We thank the current members for their involvement and we hope that there are others who will be prepared to do their bit for our community. We can testify that the payoff (for a relatively small time investment) of seeing this place we call our home continue to grow and flourish is enormous! If you are interested please email the NRPA: info@nrpa.org.za
ADT
Please welcome ADT Officer Mervyn Du Toit to the team! Officer Du Toit replaces Athi Gcememe, who has moved to another posting. We are also happy to report that this resulted in a father-and-son reunion as Mr du Toit Senior works as a car guard at the beach, so we now have dual protection from the du Toit family!
Please also welcome ADT Officer Sinethemba Mzantsi to the team!
We encourage you to take time to wave, say hello, and stop to get to know all our offices as they become more familiar.
To summarise, our current ADT officers are:
In vehicle V24: Steven Mfaxa, Siya Maseti and Mervyn du Toit
In Vehicle V29: David Mgwetana and Sinethemba Mzantsi
We also welcome a new Station Commander at Fishoek SAPS, Colonel Jackie Johnson and we look forward to a good working relationship with her.
News from the CPNW Committee is that we are delighted to welcome Robin Mousley on board as our new Communication Rep.
By now we expect everyone has settled into the routines of the New Year and we wish you all a happy, safe and prosperous one!
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