The Star
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Thursday June 15 2017
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Child sex offender concern Meeting held by residents By Andrew King SOMERFIELD residents met last week to discuss the placement of a convicted child sex offender in their community. It comes after schools and residents were told on May 29 about the offender being released from prison and who would soon be living near them. The meeting was organised by Labour MP for Port Hills Ruth Dyson (left) and included Somerfield Residents Association representatives and Department of Corrections staff. Ms Dyson labelled the meeting as “extremely positive.” “They have really tried to engage the community as much as possible. We were told it was the
CONCERN: Letters have been sent to schools warning of a sex offender living in the community.
first time that Corrections have door-knocked residents to let them know what is happening,” she said. She said she initially had doubts that police would be able to respond to any breaches of conditions, but said Corrections reassured her police would make it a “top priority.” Residents association chairwoman Julie Tobbell said it was good to allow the community to voice their concerns. “I will be looking to set up a
meeting with concerned residents and Corrections at a later date once I find out how many people would be interested in it,” she said. No specific details about the offender were discussed at the meeting, Ms Tobbell said. The next time the residents association will meet is July 10, but Ms Tobbell said there could be another meeting set up if there was a large number of interested residents who wanted to attend.
Schools were notified by Corrections staff who assured them that there will be 24/7 monitoring, exclusion zones to prevent contact with children, and the offender will be housed more than 500m from schools. Letters were sent to Somerfield, St Peter’s and Cashmere High schools. Corrections staff were also going door-to-door in Somerfield letting the community know.
Controversial fence set to cost ratepayers A CONTROVERSIAL ratepayerfunded fence at Flock Hill Station has been given the go-ahead. The Selwyn Waihora Zone Committee has reconfirmed its decision to allocate $26,571 of its Immediate Steps Biodiversity Funding to section off a part of Cave Stream and 35ha wetlands at the station. The zone initially approved allocating $44,236 to the project in March but has since reviewed its decision. It comes after an application by Flock Hill’s leaseholder Flock Hill Holdings, owned by Jim Foster and Vince Saunders of Los Angeles-based Coast Range New Zealand, was made. It proposed fencing off Cave Stream as a way of mitigating the associated loss of biodiversity on the terraces. The landowners will contribute $22,000 towards the project. A final decision on the funding was held off at the zone’s May meeting after concerns more research needed to be done on the project
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