Car guard initiative

Over the past six months business and restaurant owners along 4th Avenue have been working in conjunction with PRABOA, Safeparks and the SAPS, on implementing a revised Car Guard scheme for the high street. The new initiative, a community upliftment program supported by our ward councillor Tim Truluck, is intended to overhaul and oversee that vital and often overlooked aspect of trade along 4th – the role and visibility of parking attendants in ensuring a safe and pleasant shopping and dining experience. The 4th Avenue steering committee will begin the first phase roll out of the new scheme this week, along with a public awareness campaign. The long-term goal of the scheme, as well as other initiatives planned by this committee, is the rejuvenation and revitalisation of 4th Avenue. Managing and regulating the informal sector along the strip, removing the criminal element and making the present participants more included in the community and accountable, is one way we see of achieving this. For more information please contact Ryan Hawthorne: technical@parkhurstvillage.com

• Do not leave doors or gates open, even only for a minute, to go outside your property. We also find an alarming number of garage or gate doors open, where the resident is not even visible, but instead went inside to fetch or do something.
• Regularly test your alarm and panic buttons with the Cortac Control Room, as well as upgrade and review your home security and electric fencing.
• We have a huge amount of false alarms (On average every 5 minutes  in Parkhurst over the last few months). Every alarm alert is responded to and the time taken and resources used means they cannot effectively patrol.
• With summer coming up, please properly trim your garden plants and tree branches that can lead to false electric fencing and beam alarms during storms.
• We also find that in addition to parking cars that are prone to being stolen in the streets, people also leave valuable or visible items in cars parked in the streets, leading to unnecessary break-ins that could have been avoided.
• Install a Digipad or key lock-box at home to enable Cortac to access your property in an emergency or security event (do not allow a security company to use a master key solution to gain access to your property, this can and does lead to security breaches).
• When you are driving or walking in our suburb, please be on the lookout for  any suspicious activity that seems unusual or out of place. Always remember: If you looked twice then call it in!

Please load the Cortac Control telephone number as a  Favourite or Speed dial.
Please do not talk on your phone while standing on the pavement along 4th ave in Parkhurst.