Barrie Jones, Edgemead
I read with interest the leader in Tabletalk of Wednesday August 9 (“Don’t disturb our dorp”) that the City of Cape Town plans to develop a huge chunk of Melkbosstrand and it appears that not all residents are in favour of any of the three alternative proposals.
Given the ongoing strain on current infrastructure, underlined by Level 4b water restrictions, I believe that the City must immediately postpone all development proposals and suspend all planning permissions granted for developments which have not yet commenced.
I consider that the first priority must be to match current infrastructure with current population: to aggravate the existing imbalance by permitting further development without additional infrastructure is surely the height of recklessness and the existing residents/ratepayers will again be the soft solution to a problem created entirely by City officials.
The quest to grow the City, presumably to boast an ever-increasing population and rates revenue account, must be a holistic exercise: to publicise three alternative proposals with no mention of matching infrastructure (if any) is bound to raise the opposition by local residents and, by default, the broader community who have an equal interest.
Driving through Parklands yesterday, I was amazed at the number of new construction sites of accommodation and commercial buildings; similarly, Century City continues to grow amid an apparent surplus of commercial space to rent and I am sure there are many more suburbs with similar stories to tell.
The City has a duty to its residents to manage development in a sustainable manner; ratepayers need to be assured that all elements have been properly considered and that only developments that will not create further pressure on limited resources will be permitted.
In view of the above, I fully support the petition started by Ms Stephenson of Melkbosstrand and have copied this email to the forum for public comments on the development proposals.
