Residents kicking up a dust over nursery
Dust and compost make residents' lives unbearable.
Resident living in the surrounding areas of the Rietvallei Nursery on Corlett Avenue are up in arms over a problem they say have persisted for five years now.
The target of their wrath is the nursery. According to the residents the Record has met with, the nursery collects rubble and dry grass that they process into compost. This leads to dust and an unbearable stench. So much so that they can have no more outside activity, swimming pools have to be redone, children’s health is affected and one resident even has moved away. They also supplied a long list ranging from the local councillor to the Deputy Director of Environmental Health that they have approached, but have received no results.
Allegedly they were told in December 2012 that Environmental Affairs have told the owner, Gawie le Roux to stop this operation but nothing has came of it.
Le Roux on the other hand tells a different story. The Record was received jovially by Le Roux, despite having been warned that he is a “difficult and arrogant man”.
Le Roux has showed the Record that the piece of land behind the nursery is no longer used for the compost operation because he now does it on a grass farm near Bekkersdal. He also showed the Record that he had moved the compost that comes back to be sold about 100m away from residents’ walls. Furthermore he admits that the raw material still does get dropped off on the nursery premises and that when it is reloaded to be taken to the farm it does create a lot of dust. He denies the allegation that they operate late at night and says that in summer they try and do the process after rain since it creates less dust.
According to Le Roux he has been summonsed on 3 January by the Council to appear in court but they never pitched.
Le Roux says that he has been operating there since 1990 and that the trouble started after he refused to sell the tract of land to one of the neighbouring residents. Since the compost processing operation has been moved, Le Roux has decided to develop low-cost housing on the piece of land.
The Record approached Environmental Affairs for comment. They said that they were aware of the situation but that they saw it as concluded. They did agree though to send an inspector out again on 14 August to see if there is a problem.
