"I think that's alarming," she said.
As part of a Canterbury wide police staffing restructure, it is proposed the sergeant position will disappear and the two community liaison officers will be reduced to one.
That officer would cover all of Banks Peninsula.
"We think that resource is sufficient to manage the demand that’s coming through,” said Canterbury district commander Superintendent Tony Hill.
But Williams, who is the co-owner and operator of Bomba pizzeria on London St, said there was already a lack of police presence in Lyttelton, particularly on the roads.
"We have 3000 people in Lyttelton. We should have more protection," she said.
“The police station is often closed.
"After the earthquakes they put the prefab building there and it's never been made into a permanent station which worries me."
"Christchurch is a distance away."
The proposal has been in the works for 18 months, said Hill.
"We were finding that for many parts of the district we were significantly behind in managing our demand and other parts we were doing significantly better.
“The recurring thing that came up was our structure was not fit for our purpose. we needed to bring in to our structure, some of the things that we're already got,” he said.
This includes a gang destruction unit and a retail crime unit.
“This proposal will ensure that we have the best opportunity to provide that service in a much more meaningful way for our communities,” he said.
He confirmed a two-week consultation process on the proposed changes started last Wednesday.
NZ Police Association chair Chris Cahill was confused as to why the consultation is only being done internally and not with the affected communities.
“I just can’t understand how you’re just simply going to say, we’re going to do this and not have a conversation with the community about what it means to them,” he said.
Hill said once a final decision was made, police will engage with the community and tell them about the model they are moving to. Cahill told Bay Harbour News community constables are being done away with to put more resources into investigative crime.
“The worry with that is because they’re not based in Lyttelton, say there’s more work in Hornby, you end up getting all the resources in Hornby and nothing in Lyttelton,” he said.
“That’s not great, we don’t see the police very often as it is. They only seem to be open during working hours.”
There have been 125 victimisations reported to police in Lyttelton from August 2024 to August 2025.
In other areas of Banks Peninsula, there have been 20 in Diamond Harbour, 12 in Governors Bay, 16 in Little River, eight in Akaroa, five in the eastern bays and two in Port Levy.
“I don’t think it’s going to help the area in any way,” said Lyttelton Harbour Business Association chair, Sabrina Saunders.
“There’s lots of reports of break-ins of vehicles, I’ve seen an uptake in graffiti around Lyttelton, especially in the past month, I think there needs to be an increase in police presence, not a reduction.”
If the changes were to go ahead, she thinks the community would push back on the changes.
Hill said the police station would remain open.
He said police are looking at using social media to inform residents about the station’s opening hours.
