The Wynberg Residents’ and Ratepayers’ Association (WRRA) and Ward 62 councillor Liz Brunette plan to hold a townhall-style public meeting with Wynberg residents in July.
Kristina Davidson, chair of the association, said that following a ward committee meeting on Monday June 4, Ms Brunette had proposed that different Wynberg groups – including the WRRA, Wynberg Watch and Wynberg Improvement District (WID) – meet with the councillor to discuss issues in the suburb.
A date and time for the meeting have yet to be confirmed.
Ms Brunette said she was working closely with the residents’ committee.
“They have taken the initiative of compiling a list of their key priorities. I will look at them and plan accordingly,” she said.
She said complaints about water, electricity and sewers had been the most common ones in Ward 62 over the past months.
Ms Brunette said her priorities included safety and security, traffic calming and the interchange, which includes the fate of the empty City-owned cottages on Tenby and Kemms roads.
“If it is decided that the MyCiTi route will not pass through that part of Wynberg, the cottages will be let. If the route will pass through that area, the cottages will remain empty and eventually be demolished to make way for the route,” said Ms Brunette.
She said the City was unwilling to let the cottages in the meantime because it was hard to persuade tenants to leave once they had moved in. Ms Davidson said the City’s decision about whether the MyCiTi route would run through residential Wynberg or around it, had again been postponed, this time until the July council meeting. This is the second postponement.
Ms Davidson said in response to unbridled development of old Wynberg, the WRRA needed to pursue its vision of drawing up a proper local-area structure plan in which it set out which areas should be preserved and which were more development-friendly.
Increasing developments, especially in the Wellington Avenue area include 16 Bay View Road, 21 Wellington Avenue, 1 Malton Road, 34 Wellington Avenue, 10 Wellington Avenue and 4 Vriedenhorf Road.
Ms Davidson said the correct number of municipal bins was now available in Wynberg. A team had worked its way through every business and home from Wetton Road to the Victoria Hospital to do a bin audit and supply bins where needed.
She said businesses were the main target because the WID was battling with refuse left in bags strewn all over Wynberg business district as a result of the shortage of bins.
Ms Davidson said some blocks of flats had started recycling programmes and in those cases the City removed the bins and refunded the owners.
More bin collections were also introduced where needed, such as restaurants who before had to make do with collections only once a week.
The City had paid for the audit which had brought in R275 000 extra in rates from people who had not paid for solid-waste collections before.
Ms Davidson said the association had requested a budget from the 2019/2020 ward allocation for two projects; contribution to the cost of a neighbourhood plan/overlay for Wynberg; and traffic control measures for Main Road, Cogill Road, Oxford Street, Bower Road and Silverlea Road.
After many months of complaints from residents regarding crime and grime around Hollywood Bets on the corner of Main and Langley roads (“Decay a solid bet”, Bulletin August 24, 2017), Athol Swanson from WID reported that Hollywood Bets had tightened up its security and cleaning around the shop had been improved.
Ms Davidson urges residents to attend the meeting with Ms Brunette and to look out for updates on the association’s Facebook page or its website wynbergresidents.wordpress.com