New buses for Raglan
The Raglan-Hamilton bus service will get three brand-new buses when the new contract goes live in April next year.
WRC public transport operations manager Andrew Wilson, who spoke at the community board meeting last week, said the buses would have more seats; improved on-board storage for luggage, including surfboard racks and bike racks; on-board CCTV cameras and free passenger wifi. WRC has awarded the new contract to Go Bus, and it will include an additional trip every weekday between Raglan and Hamilton, a return of Sunday and public holiday services, except for Christmas Day, and more services to Manu Bay during the summer school holidays. The council will be seeking feedback on the draft timetable and route at a later date, possibly early next year.
Gang lifestyle attractive to kids
Concerns about gang members recruiting youths in Raglan were brought up with guest speaker acting senior sergeant Mike Henwood at the Raglan Community Board last week.
Mr Henwood told the community board that it was a reality that gang members tried to “get into the head of kids” at an early age, and it effectively was the same thing that had been done to them. “It comes down to the message from parents and schools. Why are you getting involved in this?” He said recruiting youth was part of the gang lifestyle; a career selling drugs and stealing was considered an attractive lifestyle by some young people, if they could see the benefits that the money would bring, like a flash car or property. Mr Henwood said there were some new patched members in Raglan but they had already had associations with the gang and weren’t new to town.
