Ensuring the ongoing provision of key services within our city was an important component of last week’s meeting of Hamilton City Council’s Infrastructure Operations Committee.

Chaired by Councillor Angela O’Leary, the committee made decisions to extend a service supporting suburban safety as well as a transport alliance maintaining our city’s roads.

The trial of the city’s Suburban Response Team (SRT) will be extended for a further 12 months. SRT are an extension of the Council’s City Safe Unit, which sees SRT officers visit suburbs around Hamilton to help reinforce messages around safety, such as how to deal with nuisance behaviour. It is a service primarily aimed at suburban businesses.

Since starting in July 2019, SRT have attended over 300 reactive call-outs from businesses. Out of that 300, 235 times they arrived in under 30 minutes. Up until February 2020, they had made visits to 21797 businesses across the city.

“Anyone who has seen the work of our SRT team will understand the value they add and the tangible difference they have made to safety within our suburbs,” says Councillor O’Leary.

“There was a need before and there remains a need, especially now as we prepare to come out of the Alert Level 4 lockdown, for this service to continue to support our local businesses.

“Our priority is always to keep our people and our communities safe, so therefore we are extending the trial for a further 12 months and will ensure it is considered in the Council’s annual plan,” she says.

A second renewal was agreed upon for the Council’s Hamilton Transportation Corridor Maintenance and Renewal Contract, which sees Downer New Zealand and Hamilton City Council staff work together as part of the Infrastructure Alliance (IA) to manage, renew and maintain the transport assets.

The renewal is the final three-year extension of the contract, which was awarded to Downer in October 2013, and includes an increased contract sum of $100 million.

“The contract sum was already factored into the Council’s 10 Year Plan to enable the IA to renew and maintain our city’s existing roads,” says Councillor O’Leary.

“This increase however also allows for Council to respond to changing needs by enabling flexibility to the scope and priority of the work programme, without the need for additional contracts. The IA have performed well to deliver on all aspects of the contract to date and therefore the three-year extension is warranted,” she says.

“Both these renewals represent core infrastructure and provision of services required to meet the current and future needs of our city and to enhance the wellbeing of our communities.”

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