Pro Karts owner Nick Fowler says the vandalism at the back beach has been getting worse. Less than a month after having his building burnt down, his shipping container was tagged with graffiti. Photo: Andrew Board.

Tahuna back beach ‘needs more security’

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More security is needed near the back beach at Tahunanui say local business owners after a “bad run” of vandalism.

Last month Pro Karts was the victim of a $250,000 arson attack and last weekend they were hit again, with graffiti spray painted on a shipping container they rent. It’s the latest in a long line of vandalism in the area and Pro Karts owner Nick Fowler says he’s “had enough” and says Nelson City Council needs to step up and help keep the area safe.

“This is council-owned land but we own the buildings so we pour a lot of money into our businesses with the risk of not owning the land and in return you’d think as a landlord they’d protect us a little bit. If this was our own land we could do a little more to protect ourselves.”

Other businesses in the area agree with him and they’re writing a joint letter to the council asking for it to step up security, including lights and security cameras. Nick says he will also be upgrading his security to also include a better alarm system, lights and cameras as the vandalism is as bad as it’s ever been.

“We’ve always had one or two minor things a year and there have always been a lot of fires over the years. But recently we’ve had a really bad run, the worst run we’ve had and I’m getting a little bit over it.”

He says it’s “embarrassing for Nelson”, especially when visitors to the region are the victims of crime in the area and incidents include graffiti spray-painted on the kart track, broken beer bottles on the track, spark plugs stolen from his power box, theft from tourists campervans and attempted break ins.

“So much goes on down here because they have a free rein at night time and it’s so dark down here.”

Nelson City Council says it’s working with Nick about his concerns and it currently arranges for the gates to the reserve to be closed at 10.30pm with security patrol in the area at that time. But Nick says it’s after that patrol that things can go bad and cameras and lights would help keep the area safe and are desperately needed. “If anything like this happens again the insurance company will probably walk away from me and that would be years of work in building it up and a whole heap of money wasted.”