Extra $70,000 to combat crime

North Shore City councillors say the city's public image as a safe place is slipping and needs a $70,000 boost for graffiti and alcohol-related crime projects.

They voted for the extra funds at the annual budget meeting on Friday.

The move followed criticism of the council for banning a Torbay home-owner from training security cameras on the footpath.

The council objected to the cameras being on public land but home-owner Jenny Vorster said she was responding to seven years of vandalism and theft.

Mayor George Wood said on Friday that he regretted the council did not have policies to deal with issues such as people installing cameras to counter street crime.

He supported money being provided in the council's annual budget to hire a co-ordinator for the various graffiti control efforts.

While asking police to put more resources into the North Shore, the council should put more effort into fighting graffiti, he said.

It spends $700,000 a year to protect property, including graffiti clean-up.

Mr Wood asked the council to support a move by the region's mayors and police to address the problem of crime and community harm caused by liquor. It voted to give $20,000 towards a project manager.

But the council stopped short of backing the call of the business community for $25,000 for a trial of closed-circuit television cameras in public places.

It agreed to a 6.85 per cent increase in the 2005-06 rate, including regional museum levies. This was expected to result in a surplus of $470,000 at the end of the year.

Mr Wood said the surplus should be used to repay debt, which had mounted to $157 million. A surplus would also cushion the effect on next year's rates of paying out an unknown amount on leaky homes claims.

Councillor Andrew Eaglen said it was traditional for the council to decide how much it needed and set the rate to bring in that amount.

It was improper to aim for a surplus when it could be used to bring down the rates by 0.3 per cent, he said.

Greypower and Age Concern on the North Shore made a joint appeal to keep the rates down. Greypower chairwoman Ellen Boot said a third of its 5000 members in the city relied on their pensions alone, and about 30,000 North Shore residents were retired.

Castor Bay resident and accountant Ataur Rahman also made a plea on behalf of residents on fixed incomes.

"You and I have to live within our incomes so why doesn't the council do the same?" he said. "On a fixed income, there are only three ways to pay rates increases: dip into your savings, get into debt, or forgo something like clothes, food or a holiday."