The Toyota Aqua is the most popular stolen vehicle in New Zealand, according to AMI Insurance. Photo / NZME
The Toyota Aqua is the most popular stolen vehicle in New Zealand, according to AMI Insurance. Photo / NZME
OPINION: The solution to retailer frustrations in Napier’s CBD is unlikely to be a load of bollards.
But it’s not hard to understand the call for pop-up protection as a quick fix to ram-raiders driving Toyota Aquas or Mazda Demios down CBD streets at night, and through retail front windows.
In recent months, it’s most likely to have been an Aqua.
AMI Insurance has revealed its top 10 of most-stolen cars in the past week, and the Aqua and the Demio are the top two.
According to Clive Matthew-Wilson, editor of car buying bible The Dog and Lemon Guide, the Aqua is popular with thieves because they are easy to steal and the ideal size to ram into front doors.
Matthew-Wilson is a character - a personality type that militant wokesters frown upon, because characters say things that provoke conversations.
Anyway, he didn’t present any science to back up his view, when I heard him express it on RNZ this week. But he pointed out they could be manoeuvred easily, to break down doors.
Back to bollards. Retailers want them in Emerson St, and say insurance companies won’t replace their stolen stock until there is some sort of similar protection.
What changes would you like to see made in Carlyle St? Photo / Warren Buckland
The Napier City Council (NCC) says.... look, here’s the thing - the NCC is not a “character”. The NCC is unlikely to say anything that will provoke a conversation, unless of course it is: “What would you like us to do to Carlyle St?”
Which, to be fair, is an actual conversation starter.
Councils usually ask this type of question because they have already formed a rough idea of what they want to do, and hope the feedback reflects it.
Or perhaps they are too scared to ask car dealers to stop parking vehicles for sale in Carlyle St car spaces, and are hoping this pops up in the feedback, so they can say: “The public want you to stop parking your cars for sale in public spaces.”
Unless of course, the council has some sort of arrangement with car dealers - but that wouldn’t be fair, would it?
It occurs to me that it might be fun to respond to the Carlyle St feedback with: “Have you thought about bollards in Emerson St?” Although that would be hypocritical of me. And of course, there is no place for hypocrisy in local government conversation.
As for what the NCC said about bollards, they said they cost too much, didn’t work, and police have told them they are doing a good job policing the CBD.
Policing, for those unfamiliar with the term, is what we used to pay our police officers to do before a myriad of legislative changes turned 50 per cent of our cops into armed babysitters for drug addicts and people with troublesome mental health issues.
Woke hipsters, wipe the spittle off your iPhone, because drug addicts and people with mental health issues deserve care and attention. But leaving police to sort them out is like having a brain surgeon change dressings on infected sores.
Craig Cooper says it might be fun to respond to the Carlyle St feedback with: "Have you thought about bollards in Emerson St?"
Sadly, society has changed and retailers have to spend more money on security.
It’s a tough one to digest for many retailers, who are struggling at the moment.
But jewellers have been doing it for centuries, and now that tobacco has become a more desirable criminal commodity than diamonds, others have to follow suit.
A combination of increased on-site security, local government, insurance company and police involvement are the solution. In other words, a conversation. Not a load of bollards.
- Craig Cooper is a former Hawke’s Bay Today editor. He writes a weekly column about life in Napier called Reverse Spin
