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Wednesday 15 February 2023
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Scones morning a lift for students HASTINGS Bowls Club is abuzz with warm chatter on the first Friday of each month as locals attend Scones on Hastings. And Friday 3 February was no exception with more than 50 attending the first Scones on Hastings for 2023. In the wake of the pandemic and being isolated in lockdowns a group of locals, with the support of the Hastings Bowls club, decided to hold a welcoming morning tea serving Devonshire teas and coffee to help bring people together. This has now been running for more than 12 months. Even though the cost is only $2 for tea or coffee and scones with jam and cream, the group has accumulated a surplus and decided to donate the money to help local school children. This surplus has been donated each school term for awards to encourage students at Hastings and Wallaroo primary schools, and with a donation to Western Port Community House to help families buy books and school supplies for the new year. Many families, especially with the increased cost of living, are doing it tough and appreciate
all the help they can get. The first gathering of 2023 was also addressed by Kerryn Dux, pathways and coach coordinator at Bayview Care, a community organisation that encourages older people to volunteer to monitor a primary school child and spend a few hours each week talking and listening to children. Mentors sit with a child at one of the local schools for one hour a week for minimum 12 months. Mentors help children in learning positive social skills, having fun, reaching their goals and building resilience. Dux encouraged people to volunteer and said Bayview’s slogan A friend with a purpose, summed up its aims. Members of the bowling club were at the first meeting of the year of Scones on Hastings. Scones on Hastings started with 20 people in December 2021 and now the average number of people attending each month is more than triple the number of the first meeting. The next Scones on Hastings starts at 10am on Friday 3 March. Tony Duboudin
Communities unite over crime Liz Bell liz@mpnews.com.au MORNINGTON Peninsula residents fed up with crime are behind a push for “community” policing in the fight back against a recent spate of thefts, home invasions and aggravated burglaries. At a community meeting in Hastings on Wednesday night (8 February), victims of crime, police, political representatives, Mornington Peninsula Shire Council and local businesses met to discuss community concerns and ways people could share information and work together to combat rising crime, much of which is youth related. The high number of thefts, home invasions and burglaries in recent
months has alarmed peninsula communities, and led to calls for better coordination of all community resources (“Community concerns over crime spree” The News 7/2/23). One of the organisers of the meeting, Western Port Neighbourhood Watch founder Peter De Wever, said communities were an integral part in reducing crime, and needed to work “together”. “A few of us got together because of local crime, especially over the school holidays, and thought if we could get communities working as one we had a chance at combatting the problem,” he said. “There are plenty of preventative programs out there, but the problem is that one group may not know what the other groups are doing, and we need to work together.
“We have great services like the neighbourhood house, youth groups and the blue light disco, but we all need to foster respect between the community and kids – stop the negativity and build on that sense of community.” De Wever said the meeting was important to give authorities and community services an understanding of what the community concerns were – from tagging and graffiti to burglary and car theft - and to address those issues before residents “get the pitchforks out”. “People are worried, and we need to put this fire out,” he said. “Everyone has been touched by it in some way, so we all need to play a part … we can all look out for our elderly or sick neighbours, get to know your neighbour, we can all
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notice things that are going on in our neighbourhood. Neighbourhood watch isn’t about being nosey, it’s about community.” Residents on the other side of the peninsula are also agitating for better use of community eyes and ears. Mount Eliza resident Michael Hamilton says it’s time to revive a Mount Eliza Frankston South Neighbourhood Watch group that started two years ago but fizzled out mainly due to lack of volunteers. “I think with what’s been going on around here it’s time to have another go at Neighbourhood Watch, I think people really want to be involved now to keep communities safe,” he said. “The problem is these things need volunteers and commitment to drive them, and with people being so time poor, that’s an ongoing battle.”
Hamilton said he had noticed more and more social media posts mentioning vigilante-style patrols. “People are frustrated, but that’s not the way to go about it,” he said. The Mount Eliza and Frankston South Neighbourhood Watch site is an online portal where people can report local concerns or crimes and find information on safety-related matters. Hamilton said he had noticed a growing need in the community for “awareness” of what’s going on and the sharing for information, with a proliferation of social media sites reporting crime. “Given what’s been happening around the peninsula, I think we will see an uptake in Neighbourhood Watch groups and a community approach to reducing crime.”
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