LSRA discuss crime and grime

The Llandudno Primary School hall was packed for the Llandudno Special Ratings Area annual general meeting.

The Llandudno Special Ratings Area (LSRA) held its annual general meeting last week, with much of the emphasis falling on crime initiatives that have been undertaken.

The well-attended AGM at Llandudno Primary School on Wednesday November 14 was the first since the LSRA board came under fire from a group of residents for increasing the security levy last year. These residents had also suggested there were “irregularities” in the selection of the board in 2017.

However, aside from the occasional heated disagreement between members, this year’s event was comparatively sedate.

The directors of the board were unanimously elected without objection, with Kiki Bond-Smith re-elected as chair. Last year’s minutes were also unanimously adopted.

In his security presentation, Wes Corbett paid special tribute to the late Anthony Allen, who died tragically in a paragliding accident last week. Mr Allen was well-known in local crime-fighting circles, and Mr Corbett said everyone had benefited from his hard work in the community.

One of the new security measures has been the introduction of a formalised record-keeping system. Rob Tweddle, a resident with a Bsc degree in property studies, has devised a system which breaks the 12 crime categories into “violent” and “non-violent” crime.

By way of graphics, he showed there had been 12 non-violent and five violent crimes in Llandudno in the past year. Since the introduction of a high-end camera security system and PPA Security, there had been a significant drop-off in violent crime.

Mr Corbett said the introduction of PPA Security, which did not practise “selective crime enforcement”, had yielded positive results, with no more home invasions occurring at night and bin dives falling away.

Some residents have called for PPA Security to deliver a full-time service to Llandudno, and it was agreed that a meeting to discuss the matter would be held at a later date.

In his presentation on environmental matters affecting Llandudno, Huck Edersby said when the SRA was formed in 2014, a deal was struck with the City of Cape Town that the City would provide standard maintenance, repair and cleaning services and the SRA would “top up” with any other services required by the LSRA.

Unfortunately, he said, there had been a fall-off in basic services recently, with the City citing budget constraints as the primary reason.

He pointed to the steps linking Upper Llandudno Road and Lower Llandudno Road as being in a “shocking state”.

Audience members also raised issues of there not being enough dustbins in Llandudno, and residents or their gardeners dumping garden refuse in public open spaces. One resident proposed regular community clean-ups to ease the situation.

One of the final items on the agenda was the budget for the next five years. It is forecast that residents’ contributions will be increased by 10% in the next year and an average of 8.5% in the next four years.