Helen Carstens, councillor for Ward 5 (Bothasig and Edgemead)
This serves to remind residents that Ward 5 consists of Edgemead and Bothasig with me, Helen Carstens, as your incumbent councillor. Recently, confusion ensued that Richwood – presently under Ward 105 and reporting to Sub-council 7 – would be part of Ward 5, when in fact Richwood will become part of Ward 1.
Due to the confusion and complaints emanating therefrom, I wish to clarify the matter to Bothasig, Edgemead and Richwood residents. Following recent public meetings and my own concerns, the subsequent issues were raised :
* Road maintenance and pothole repairs;
* Tree pruning;
* Street sweeping and cleaning of lanes;
* Weed spraying.
A meeting under the chairmanship of Taki Amira, chairman of De Grendel Sub-council, and I, was held with the relevant line departments and the respective outcomes are:
* Road maintenance and pothole repairs
Residents are firstly encouraged to log service request notifications via the City of Cape Town’s Service Notification System whenever potholes are observed. The maintenance of roads within the City of Cape Town is done via a policy application done by expert engineers where after budget proposals are put forward via the Integrated Development Plan (IDP).
The area engineer is at present compiling a reseal/rehabilitation of roads within Ward 5 for the purpose of the 2016/17 budget year.
The area engineer further confirmed that road maintenance in general, inclusive of attending to potholes, is being done on a continuous basis and emphasised the fact that registering of service requests on the City’s Service Notification System will assist to further enhance this service. It is common knowledge that this is a very expensive, but much-needed exercise.
In future, the sub-council and relevant councillors will be notified of corporate capital work planned for the next quarter, which in turn will be posted on the website and circulated to all community-based organisations (CBO) on the sub-council database, a reason for all role-players to register to be included on the sub-council CBO database.
* Tree pruning and tree removal
Currently the tree pruning is being done on an ad hoc basis due to inter alia no tenders in place. Once again service request notifications should be logged so that it can be recorded for future management. Tree removal requests should be attended to via the City’s Service Notification System so that the experts can investigate and respond.
It is important to note that there are four categories of tree work, namely: root pruning, tree pruning, tree removal and tree pruning along main roads. The process to appoint a new tenderer is projected to be finalised by the end of August and should be fully operational shortly thereafter.
* Street sweeping
Street sweeping at present is attended to via the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) providing employment to unemployed persons living in the area.
Similarly any streets and lanes that require attention can be recorded on the City’s Service Notification System.
At present there is one worker employed at the Edgemead Taxi Rank to clean the area and every Wednesday there are workers in Edgemead Drive, Letchworth Drive and Louis Thibault Avenue to do street sweeping.
The litter bins referred to hereunder are also cleaned every Wednesday. In Bothasig two workers sweep, clean litter bins and lanes in De Grendel and Vryburger on Mondays Fridays and Wednesdays Bosmansdam gets cleaned and the lanes get cleaned on Tuesdays. Vryburger, Link, Tafelberg and Botma Street get cleaned on Thursdays. Other streets are attended to on an ad hoc basis.
In respect of Ward 1, Richwood, the area is cleaned in employing EPWP workers with litter picking at least once a week which is also done by EPWP workers. The City’s utilities department regularly engages the Sub-council office to recruit EPWP workers with little success. Residents are encouraged to request unemployed persons to call at the Sub-council office in Goodwood and register on our database for employment in this regard.
* Green bins
The green refuse bins are placed for the public and pedestrians to deposit cool drink cans, paper, and other litter. It was reported that all sorts of other articles are being dumped, among them dead dogs and household refuse which are causing the bins to overflow. The bins are regularly cleaned and then immediately abused.
* Weed spraying
Weed spraying is normally done during March and September each year at the time of active growth. A programme detailing weed spraying in each area is awaited and will be circulated to all role-players. The foregoing perspective is indeed important and on receipt of further information, communication to role-players will follow via the Sub-council.