Residents of Parklands Manor and Parklands Residential Estates are worried that the property (a sand fill site) adjacent to them has become a semi-industrial area and was allegedly extended illegally.
Residents have been complaining to the City of Joburg since May last year and their complaint has not yet been attended to.
According to the residents, the site was illegally extended to close to the wetland and there is illegal dumping taking place inside.
Parklands Homeowner’s Association chairperson Stan McIntosh indicated that the City was compromising their two up-market estates by allowing them to exist close to the site owned by unscrupulous land owners who were transgressing City bylaws.
“Rain run-off from the site carrying silt is contaminating the water course close to the Wilgespruit stream. Our dams inside the estates are now overfull and contaminated,” said
He complained that loitering of vagrants, who sought accommodation on the site, is a severe safety threat to the residents entering and exiting the estates. “Vagrants intimidate our residents when they walk on Cascades Road either from residential complexes to the shops at the Struben’s Valley Shopping Centre,” explained McIntosh.
According to vice-chairperson of the association Billy Maasberg, it is quite expensive to sort this problem out.
“We (ratepayers) maintain these complexes and eventually the dam will fill up,” said Maasberg.
Basil Nkosi from the office of the Member of Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Development Planning directed the media inquiries to Rowena Chetty, the controller of Regions A to G.
She said the department requires an Erf (plot) or stand number and, street address of the property that residents were complaining about.
“The on-line maps system that the City uses does not pick up corners and require a proper street address in order to be able to locate the Erf number,” Chetty said.
Details: Stan McIntosh 082 551 5947; City of Joburg 011 407 6899.
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