Enough is Enough: CHCH Business Owners Demand Action on Crime
November 30, 2022
PHOTO: George Heard
Eighty business owners across Christchurch have stamped their foot down and demanded an “urgent response” from the Government on the city’s frequency of crime and anti-social behaviour.
The owners have signed a joint letter, co-ordinated by the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce asking for sufficient resources and changes to hold offenders to account.
Among the owners is Mark Sherry, who has seen staff members accosted by youths, followed through alleyways and abuse being shouted outside his office.
An older female staff member of his was surrounded, poked and threatened by a group of youths earlier in the year, she’s now regularly escorted to the exchange by another staff member.
Sherry’s office overlooks the city mall, he claims to regularly see and hear “vagrants and druggies” shouting and fighting in the streets, stealing from and abusing buskers.