Tauranga police HQ for Waimarino?

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 653, 10 September 1996, Page 1

Tauranga police HQ for Waimarino?

Rumours about plans to make the Waimarino part of a police district that would have Tokoroa as it's 'local base' and Tauranga as its headquarters have concerned the Waimarino Community Board. At the board' s meeting Thursday last week John Compton called for a police representative to be asked to attend the next meeting to discuss the matter with the board. Mr Compton asked that the item be placed on the October meeting agenda and then launched into a monologue on the detrimental effects of government agency decisions that take no account of their effects on rural people. This speech raised eyebrows as local government meeting rules state that items not on the publicised agenda should not be discussed. He said putting Waimarino into such a police district would have a marked effect as well as on related activities such as handling remand prisoners, probation services, support of remand prisoners by families.

Armed offenders support was an hour away from Wanganui but more than three hours from Tauranga, said Mr Compton. "Why go north when everything else goes south?" he asked. "There is no community of interest with Tauranga." "The police have got to gi ve us some answers," he said, although he was sympathetic with local police who, he believed, had little say in the matter. Waimarino' s Senior Sergeant Ross Bielby was not available for comment, nor was the Ruapehu area controller Inspector Jeff Holloway. The Bulletin understands that a working group within the police force has been set up to look at police district boundaries, with changes possible along present Transport Licensing Authority boundaries, but that a conclusion to this process is some way off, and that public submissions may be welcome. Under the present TLA boundaries, Waimarino would join Taupo to come under a Tokoroa based district and cease ties with Wanganui, the Bulletin understands