Date posted: October 13, 2018

Dear neighbours,

Crime Update

It is a great relief to again be able to report a continuation of a relatively low-crime period, with only two incidents we know of, in what is close to eight weeks since our last newsletter:

-        On September 13, in Katzenellenbogen Rd, a home owner found a ladder from the next-door building site propped up on the fence and removed it, only to discover later that an outside guest flat had been burgled. A flat screen television and a coffee machine were reported stolen.

-        In the second incident, three days later, an outbuilding on a property in Cardinal Close had a door removed from its hinges and a trellidor damaged but the attempt to break in was unsuccessful.

But elsewhere…

Although we generally have tended to experience lower crime rates in our area in the winter months and were also fortunate to have extended rains which have limited access through the wetlands, this year has been particularly quiet.

This is despite apparently increasing rates in most other parts of the Peninsula. Most worryingly, we have heard a number of reports of attempted hijackings, mostly late at night, along Kommetjie Road, in the vicinity of the shops and SASOL garage, an increase in armed robberies in Fishoek, and an extended run of crime in Kommetjie that was only brought under control through the intervention of the ADT-Fidelity response team members.

Also concerning was a report of two men who had been spotted following some tourists at the beach and were later handed over to SAPS. We have been very pleased to have the presence of SANParks Visitor Safety Ranger Vasen Govender and have supported calls for him to remain in the local area.

Keep your guard up

There does seem to be a trend of attempts on outbuildings as well as some association with building sites, so although we have mostly enjoyed a peaceful time and have perhaps been relaxing a little about security issues, it would be wise to a least make a check of the security measures you have in place.

We would equally encourage neighbours to check in with one another and to develop and expand community connector networks. It is crucial that everyone makes a point of welcoming new residents and bringing them into our circles of safety!

Sign up or Sign out!

We have a real struggle in keeping our membership database up to date, so please remind anyone leaving the area to let us know, but most importantly, please encourage new neighbours to get onto the website and to sign up!

We believe the multifaceted approach to crime prevention that we have adopted is paying off more and more, but this is entirely dependent on the degree to which we all participate in ensuring that we do live in a safe and peaceful environment. 

ADT

Whilst the crime front has been fairly quiet it has been all action on the security company side, beginning with a somewhat bizarre marketing campaign from ADT that was withdrawn within hours of being put out. By then however a number of discrepancies seem to have emerged, when various members discussed security bills (as one would in the light of what seemed like an extremely generous special offer!).

As a result a number of questions have arisen with regard to what rates residents in our area are charged by ADT for services and we seem to be struggling to get clear answers. We were finally given the table below, but as many of the figures do not seem to tally with what members inform us they are being charged, it would be very useful to obtain our own data. So, in this respect, we would be very grateful to anyone who is willing to disclose details of their monthly ADT Bill. Please let Erik know by contacting him at: e.h.meijer@telkomsa.net !

We obviously recognise that there would be some anxiety about doing so, if your rates seem lower than the norm, so we would hasten to assure everyone that we are clear that we would not reveal any identities to ADT. However we would need you to rely on our good faith!   

 

Service	Nov-17	Nov-18
Monitoring only, via telephone line	R 187,60	R 198,86
Monitoring only, via radio or radio & telephone	R 201,39	R 213,47
Response only	R 392,83	R 416,40
CPNW donation	R 30,00	R 30,00
Radio Monitoring + Response	R 594.22	R 629,87
Radio Monitoring + Response + CPNW	R 624,22	R 659,87
Monitoring via Telephone + Response	R 580,43	R 615,26
Telephone Monitoring + Response + CPNW	R 610,43	R 645,26

 

Fee Increase

Related to this has been the ongoing discussions we have had with ADT, regarding their proposal of a further 7% increase in fees this year, which we have vehemently objected to. In a further display of what we have charitably chosen to view as ineptitude, we then discovered that this increase had been implemented on 1 September and was also applied to the CPNW voluntary contribution of R30 per month. ADT has since agreed that this was incorrect and has promised to only implement the final increase, which they are now saying will be 6% (we continue to raise objections), on 1 November, to calculate this increase on the monthly total minus the CPNW contribution and to credit accounts to repay the error. It goes without saying that we would urge all members to keep a close eye on their accounts and to let us know of any discrepancies!

 

Alternative?

This does, of course again raise the question of whether we should not be switching to an alternative security provider, which has additionally become more difficult as Fidelity-ADT continues to grow its dominance of the local household security market. As mentioned before, our principle difficulty lies in the enormity of the undertaking involved in finding potential alternative service providers, in properly assessing the value they would provide and then in persuading a significant majority of members to switch, in the face of a range of potential hassles and initiation costs.

 

Additionally we remain confident that the actual security service we are getting is of a good standard, particularly as we have, over time developed good relationships with most of the patrol officers, who know the area well.

 

We have also recently benefited from the use of specialist response team members, who played an effective role in bringing an end to the run of house burglaries we were experiencing in early 2017, as well as in responding to the beach incidents. That said, perhaps the most concerning issue is the lack of apparent competitors, which does leave us very vulnerable when negotiating what we pay.

Call for Volunteers

This brings us, once again to the pressing need we have for more volunteers to come forward and assist in investigating alternative possible security providers, as well as to help with the range of other duties carried out by committee members. When these tasks are shared between enough of us, none amount to a huge number of hours per month and are easily do-able - but over time, and as the number of active volunteers declines (as ironically always seems to happen when we have been successful) the work does pile up on a few and becomes more and more wearying as the years go by.

 

So, we urgently need to call for volunteers to bring new energy to our committee and we need to ask everyone in the area to think carefully about how you can help in making sure that our lovely neighbourhood does indeed continue to be one of the safest places to live in this country!

 

Although some existing committee members are beginning to feel the fatigue of many years of involvement, what we all in agreement about is that working for our community in this way is enormously rewarding! This is not only evident in terms of the tangible results we have produced, but also in the way our community has developed into what is truly a wonderful place to live in, make friends and to raise a family.

 

It would be terribly sad to see this slowly deteriorate again into that all-too-typical situation in many parts of modern suburbia, where people don’t know their neighbours and retreat behind ever-increasing layers of walls and fences. This will however become inevitable if we do not get new blood into our structures in the near future! So please give some thought to this.

AGM

On that note we would like to invite everyone to our AGM, which we will be holding on 26 November at the Community Centre. (More about exciting developments at the Centre to come soon!)

 

Please set the date aside and be sure to remind your neighbours!

 

Wishing you all a safe month!

The CPNW Committee.