Palmerston North’s ‘safe’ status renewed
Being an ‘‘international safe community’’ has long been a source of pride for Palmerston North, but the city’s reaccreditation carries an extra weight after New Zealand’s darkest day.
Palmerston North achieved ‘‘Pan Pacific safe community’’ status in 2014, joining a group of 60 cities around the world.
That status was reaffirmed by the Safe Communities Foundation in a signing cer- emony at the Palmerston North Confer- ence and Function Centre on Tuesday.
Councillor Vaughan Dennison, chairman of the council’s safety advisory board, said this held a new significance in light of the mosque shootings in Christchurch on Friday.
The endorsement, from an international, independent organisation, of officials’ efforts to improve the safety of everyone in Palmerston North would be a reassurance to a shaken community, he said.
Making the city safer from domestic terrorism was barely on the radar when drawing up Palmerston North’s safe city plan, until Friday.
Dennison said workshops coming up would look at refining the plan and the issue would no doubt be dealt with.
Potential workshop topics will be how to foster closer ties between the city’s diverse communities and what measures the community can take to counter the bigotry and hate at the root of the Christchurch attack.
‘‘Out of our shared grief over this tragedy, more than ever, we all want to draw closer together,’’ Dennison said.
Safe Communities Foundation New Zealand director Tania Peters praised the ‘‘transformational’’ work Palmerston North had already completed to make a safer and more connected community over the past five years.
Examples of this are the Palmerston North City ambassadors, or Ma¯ngai Atawhai, and Safecity hosts, who monitor the central business district, among other programmes, which have helped reduce violence and crimes against property.
The council works with Rangita¯ne o Manawatu¯ , the Government, Midcentral District Health Board, emergency services, the Defence Force and community groups on the ‘‘safe community project’’.
A final report from the assessment team, with recommendations for further improvements, will be submitted to the council in the next week.