Date posted: July 21, 2025
Dear Neighbours,Crime Update
So far, we have had a typically quiet winter crime-wise, with just one incident to report since our last newsletter (1 June).
This involved the theft of a motor-vehicle wheel from a garden in Acacia Avenue. Deep Blue (DBS) dispatched a patrol vehicle after their control room spotted a person running with a car wheel down Acacia at 5:08 am on 13 June (a Friday morning). The suspect, reportedly looking as though he was living rough, was apprehended and turned over to SAPS. The owner was identified via CPNW and the tyre returned.
Evidence from camera footage suggests that the suspect entered the area from the wetlands, possibly through a gap that had been formed in the fence that blocks access from the wetlands at the bottom of Acacia Avenue. It is notable that slightly earlier the previous Friday morning, the same patrol vehicle had identified individuals walking in Acacia Avenue and escorted them from the area.
We are pleased to see that the fence has now been repaired!
Bin Nights
This once again highlights how human traffic through our area still increases on bin nights, and whilst this seems primarily associated with relatively petty crime, any crime is too much, as the “Broken Windows” philosophy suggests that addressing small crimes helps keep out big crime.
We are confident that after-dark activity in our streets has significantly reduced on bin nights, and that genuine recyclers seem to understand and respect our approach and have little reason to enter our streets in the dark when our bins are in any case not available to them.
Unfortunately, as with any change in habitual behaviour, it will take time before nobody in the neighbourhood puts out bins on Thursday nights. However, a little perseverance to inform visitors and new residents and to encourage or even help those who can’t easily put bins out on Friday mornings (taking a second bin out isn’t terribly taxing), could make it something nobody does!
Close Your Gates!
A related concern the Security Companies have raised with us is gates being left open. Whether a heavily fortified security gate or a simple one in a garden fence, when left open, it signals vulnerability, a weakened boundary that is easier to transgress, a signal that you are off-guard.
We recently tried to bring attention to this by distributing a security reminder. But the feedback from members was that we had mostly been preaching to the converted, and that it is usually visitors and guests who tend to leave gates open (and bins out)!
Challenges
This points to a growing challenge we face in our lovely neighbourhood: its beauty (and wonderful community) makes it an increasingly desirable place to visit. This is resulting in a boom in rentals, BnBs and local businesses, which although positive, can also threaten the essence of the neighbourhood.
To counter this, we all need to actively ensure that we promote our ethos of protecting our neighbourhood (not simply from crime) to everyone who comes here. We thus intend to develop a list of security tips for visitors, and we encourage everyone, not only landlords and BnB owners, to make a point of informing newcomers, visitors and guests about neighbourhood safety, and to consider connecting them whilst they are in the area to a local Connector Group.
Beach Car Guards
Also critical to visitor safety in our area are the beach car guards, whose presence is a proven deterrent against the break-ins and lock-jamming incidents that were becoming increasingly regular, but have since only occurred when the car guards are not present. As many will know, we provided the car guards with ID cards and QR scans last summer, which was very helpful in securing their income in an increasingly cashless environment.
The winter months, however, have been a real struggle for them and we are very grateful to those who do support them individually, and to those who responded to our appeal to assist! This can be done by visiting our website and opening the “Car Guards” tab. Payment can then be made by either scanning the QR codes for each car guard on the website, or clicking on the photos of the guards or QR codes, which will take you to a range of payment options.
A payment provides codes that are sent to the car guards by SMS for vouchers that are redeemable at Pick n Pay and various other outlets. We also, in the last week agreed to a R1000 donation to each guard from CNPW, for which they were extremely thankful.
Hopefully we can steadily develop more comprehensive ways of supporting these gentlemen, as we really do need them in our car park!
NRPA AGM
The NRPA AGM on 11 June demonstrated once again how lucky we are as a community to have such strong organisational leadership. The amount of work done by the NRPA, and in particular its chairperson and committee members, is hugely impressive, and we have no doubt that our safety and security is directly related to how well we work as a community.
The NRPA continues to explore innovative solutions to the many challenges we have as a growing community, and we look forward to beautifully designed beach toilets and bus stops, and so much more that will go towards preserving the wonderful way of life we have here. Please support them by joining at:
https://nrpa.org.za/about/register/
We hope everyone stays warm and safe for the rest of the winter!!
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