Call to simplify process to install store bollards
The owner of a ram-raided Tawa store says the council needs to make it easier for businesses to install protective bollards.
Kartik Badiyani and his wife own five liquor stores in the Wellington region and another six further north.
His Tawa store was hit by ram raiders on the morning of August 22 and alcohol taken.
There have been no arrests.
‘‘A bollard is a one-time investment. It will secure the building, our insurance premiums won’t go up and [it would] give us some peace of mind,’’ Badiyani said.
Wellington City Council should act to remove the legislative hurdles in the way of businesses needing to install bollards to protect themselves he said.
Council spokesperson Richard MacLean said bollards had to be half a metre out from the store front and driven deep into the ground to be effective.
‘‘We have concerns about bollards – particularly the risk they pose for blind or vision-impaired people. There are also concerns about the amount of excavation and disruption to underground services,’’ MacLean said.
Since the Tawa raid Badiyani had been on high alert and said he couldn’t help waking at night to check on his businesses’ security cameras.
‘‘It is stressful, those sleepless nights. All I’m thinking about now is ‘ what next?’,’’ he said.
In recent months ram raiders had struck Wellington businesses’ in Brooklyn, Island Bay, Wainuiomata, Lyall Bay and Tawa. Nationally, 2022 was the worst ever year for ram-raids with 254 carried out in the first six months of the year.
Councillor Jenny Condie said she was ‘‘open to any way’’ to simplify council processes, but public spaces outside stores needed to be carefully managed.
‘‘We need to be really careful about what we put on the footpath and how we share that space with other users,’’ Condie said.
In May, Auckland Transport (AT) group manager John Strawbridge said AT was looking at a ‘‘simplified process’’ for businesses wanting bollards for safety and security purposes. It had appointed a dedicated staff member to handle all applications and queries about the installation of bollards.
‘‘Where a site has experienced ramraiding or repeated vehicle accidents, AT will consider the installation of bollards near the front of the building at the landowner’s expense,’’ Strawbridge said. In the same month Police Minister Poto Williams announced $6m would go towards installing bollards, alarms and
‘‘A bollard is a one-time investment. It will secure the building, our insurance premiums won’t go up and [it would] give us some peace ofmind.’’
Kartik Badiyani
fog cannons in stores to combat ram raids.
At the time, Williams said there had been a clear increase in ram-raids, with up to 40 incidents reported each month.
Insurance Council of New Zealand chief executive Tim Grafton said the presence of bollards outside a store could help keep a lid on premiums but each business would have to be assessed on a case by case basis.
‘‘If they installed bollards they may become a more acceptable risk and their insurer may price accordingly but there are many other factors that could affect their premium,’’ Grafton said.
Grafton said, while the instances of ram-raids had increased, the number of incidents ‘‘still reflects a relatively small number of insured retail properties’’.