Opinion

Call for public meeting for vlei fence

Letter to the Editor|Published

Alan Penberthy, Table View

Over the past few weeks I have heard various justifications as to why a small part of the vlei may be fenced in.

It is news to me that the proposed building of the fence is in accordance with the City's Nature Reserve by-laws (“Mixed response to reserve fencing plan”, Tabletalk, September 7).

Surely it would be a requirement of the by-laws to build a fence only if it was appropriate, justifiable and viable to do so.

In the 10 years I have been walking in the area in question, I have never seen any evidence of a “land invasion”, and incidentally, the recent fire did not start where I understand it is proposed to build a fence. So the justifications for erecting a fence given by Mr Andrews are not convincing. It seams to me that he is ill-informed.

Table View would be enhanced by having a dedicated area for dogs to be walked next to the vlei, which incidentally forms a very small part of the vlei nature reserve .

I would suggest that the matter be discussed in a public meeting of all interested parties, before the municipality spends a lot of ratepayers’ money on something which is not justifiable, viable or even wanted by many people.