The Milnerton Central Residents’ Association (MCRA) is going to be using the City’s own complaints system to keep tabs on how quickly it responds to problems in the area.
Resident Charl van der Merwe thought up the Milnerton Improvement C3 Campaign (MIC3), which uses the C3 logging system to monitor complaints about everything from potholes to power outages.
The system records a resident’s complaint and issues them with a reference number.
The MIC3 campaign wants residents to use the system to log complaints and then post their reference number on the Milnerton Neighbours Facebook page.
Mr Van der Merwe said a record of the C3 references would be kept, so that the City’s progress in attending to complaints could be monitored.
“I noticed that residents post comments on the Milnerton Neighbours Facebook page all the time about lots of problems in the area. Once I commented on an issue and someone challenged me to put my money where my mouth is, so I did,” he said.
“I decided to check if the C3 system actually works. So I drove through the area taking pictures and logged five C3s about things that needed attention, like the weeds on Otto du Plessis. Within a month, the things had been seen to,” said Mr Van der Merwe.
He wants to see improvements to Joe Slovo parks and the Woodbridge waterfront, the building of gardens in the Phoenix area and a skate park in Summer Greens.
Keeping track of the C3s would also help residents monitor their ward councillor’s performance, he said.
Milnerton Central Residents’ Association chairman Peter Walsh praised Mr Van der Merwe’s idea. “Charl is an inspiring and creative individual who has many ideas,” he said.
Ward 113 councillor Joy McCarthy also posted a comment on Facebook, welcoming the idea. “Great positive initiative guys. Well done,” she said.
Milnerton resident Reezah Petersen commented: “A lot of hours go into addressing issues and thinking of how we can help the surrounding suburbs as well. I too used to just come home in the evening and lock ourselves up, but that changed when I met the newly elected MCRA hard-working crew.”
