From Murray’s Desk

Kia ora koutou

Firstly, a big “thank you” to all of you who have taken time out of your busy lives to provide articles for this publication.

It is fantastic to have contributions from organisations and individuals to learn of ways to make our communities safer and better places to work and live in.

Hopefully, you will find that these stories are good to share and that we can all learn or laugh from them.

And now a question for you…

What happens when a troublesome issue happens in our street or neighbourhood? Be it noisy parties, rubbish dumped on the road, graffiti (heaven forbid if it’s on our front fence), an abandoned car, leaking fire hydrants or speeding motorists. We usually have a grumble, may even talk to the neighbours and have a grumble with them then the conversation often turns to “what are they doing about this?”(They, being the Police, council, power supplier, etc). Perhaps “they” don’t know about the issue, in that case it is still our problem.

How about we turn the question round to “what could I/we do about this?”

In most cases we, as residents, can do something about the issue.

On a recent Sunday morning I was walking our dogs along a stop bank and came across a pile of recently dumped rubbish (it wasn’t there on Saturday).

I took a photo of the rubbish and using the Snap Send Solve app, which worked out the location, I sent the information to the local council.

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Monday morning came with an update from the council, the sad thing was that after my report was sent in, another load of rubbish was dumped in the immediate vicinity! Let’s help out all the “they” people and become “we” people!

It is easy to download the Snap Send Solve app or report to the CCC by phone or online anything from a fallen tree branch to a water leak or a pothole to graffiti.

I had reason to go onto the New Zealand Snap Send Solve website recently and the first item I read was:

“The Christchurch Volunteer Graffiti Programme has ensured that graffiti issues remain the most reported incident type in New Zealand.”

Well done to the CCC Graffiti Programme team and their volunteers! These are people who are doing something to make our city a better place to live and work in. As always, we are indebted to those that advertise in this publication, a percentage of the cost goes towards funding of our organisation. Where possible please support those businesses advertising in our booklet. We are also very thankful for the support given to us by funders, supporters and sponsors.

If you or someone you know would like to contribute an article in future, please contact us on the number below.

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We offer a fantastic selection of family eateries, contemporary function and events venues and a modern sporting facility. Come and join us. Membership is just Noho ora mai,

Murray

CNS Manager

Canterbury Neighbourhood Support

Which covers the area of Ōtautahi Christchurch and Te Pataka o Rakaihautū Banks Peninsula, has a new land line number:

03 353 8729

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