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June 2022 Newsletter

CHAPMANS PEAK 100 YEAR CELEBRATIONS

Thank you to everyone who came out and supported the Chapmans Peak 100 Years celebration soccer match between Noordhoek Football Club and Hout Bay Football Club. It was a day of great festivities enjoyed by all!

Thanks Stephen Cruickshank for these great images

 

NOORDHOEK BEACH BOARDWALK

Huge shout out to Project Noordhoeked and On the Verge, as well as many local businesses who all contributed to finishing off the boardwalk at Noordhoek Beach.

BEACH ROAD

I am sure many will have noticed the road works in Beach Road, Chapmans Peak.

These Road works were on the city plan for a while but were accelerated because residents on the lower side of Beach were flooded a couple of times last winter. The main issue is the water run off from properties and roads on the Northern side of Beach Road.

These roadworks have been scheduled to be completed by the end of June.

The NRPA has taken the opportunity to help provide a pedestrian path all along the Southern side of Beach Road, between Hurter Road and the Common. This is a good opportunity to utilise the disturbances made to the verges in a productive way.

The path will look similar to the photo below, with poles on the resident’s side to demarcate the path and using some of the gravel left behind by the excavations. This will enable a portion of verge to be left for gardening, shrubs and flowers. There are plans to compact the gravel, this will probably only be done once a longer stretch has been cleared by the contractors. Note that the path in the pic has not been compacted yet.

Our local NGO, On the Verge, has kindly agreed to take on the job of creating the path, leveling and raking and laying poles.

However, the problem we have is that there is a shortage of poles, so this is an appeal to the community to donate any old poles to OTV so that they can complete the job properly.

If you do not have any poles to donate, please consider donation cash in lieu of poles, any amount big or small will be greatly appreciated. The compaction process will also involve costs, estimated at between R2000 and R3000. So contributions towards this will obviously also be appreciated.

Poles can be left at the Community Centre or 37 Beach Road if that is closed. Failing that please send a message to OTV via their FB page. (https://www.facebook.com/noordhoek.ontheverge)

OTV banking details are as follows:
Noordhoek Common Association
ABSA (632 005)
Ac No 929 596 9715
Ref: BCHPATH+your name

 

Septic/conservancy tank cleaning – Meeting with CoCT

NRPA representatives recently met with Mayco member Zahid Badroodien and Ward councillors Patricia Francke and Simon Liell-Cock to discuss the long delays in septic/conservancy tank cleaning experienced by Noordhoek residents. Zahid confirmed that CoCT should provide this service within 5 days and agreed that overflowing tanks should be dealt with much faster.

However, it also came to light that residents can make sure they are helped much faster by following these simple steps:

  1. Make a service request online (https://eservices1.capetown.gov.za/coct/wapl/zsreq_app/index.html?

) or through the call centre 0860 103 089, SMS 31373, Whatsapp: 063 407 3699 or Email: water@capetown.gov.za

  1. online:
    Choose “Create service request”,
    then Group: “Sewer”
    and Service: “Empty Septic Tank”.
  2. Under “Describe Request” indicate:
  • If your tank is OVERFLOWING or not (this determines urgency)
  • if you have a Septic tank or Conservancy tank
  • the size of your tank in liters (approximately)
  • the distance from where the truck can park and the tank (if more than 30m this requires a bigger truck)

CoCT also gave NRPA telephone numbers of the depot that plans the vehicles on a daily base (021-4445054/5). These have been provided with the promise that they will only be used in cases of high urgency. It is best to call in the early morning – only after following the steps above!

NRPA will be meeting the councillors on this topic again in half a year. Let’s hope that with better communication things will improve. In the meantime, please read through the information on NRPA website through the link below.

https://nrpa.org.za/septic-tanks-and-soak-aways-in-noordhoek

If you are a Noordhoek ratepayer then we hope you will support our efforts by becoming a member. If you already are one, then we would appreciate your support in increasing our membership base by telling your neighbours. The annual contribution is R300, which not only helps us do the work we do, but more importantly gives us a larger member base and therefore increases our influence. For registration visit https://nrpa.org.za/about/register

 

NRPA City of Cape Town Budget Comment

NRPA commented on the proposed 2022/5 CoCT budget. Since then it has appeared that a second traffic light is maybe not what residents want, so that may never be installed.

Comment text: “We have read with interest the proposed CoCT budget as well the summary for SubCouncil 19 and have the following comments/suggestions:

  1. We find the proposed increases in rates, electricity and water/sanitation (5.2%, 9.5% and 6.5% respectively) very high. Has Council considered reducing the increase in staff cost (10.7%) to limit the increase in rates as well as to increase the budget for service delivery and climate change preparation?
  2. It is not clear from the budget if the following service delivery is guaranteed for our ward in the years to come. Kindly confirm that this is the case:
    • Painting of road signage once a year
    • Inspection/clearing of storm water drains once a year ahead of winter
    • Grading of gravel roads in the frequency required (we request your confirmation on the frequency budgeted)
    • Septic tank removals:
      • annex 6 (page 63.1) mentions 6 tank removals free of charge during office hours but no free service after hours? Please explain
      • The capacity of septic tank trucks is not in line with the requirements of the city, nor with the move from septic tanks to conservancy tanks. Investment is needed in extra capacity, as well as budgets to maintain the fleet

We also find that the priorities of the budget are not in line with your policy of preparing the city for the effects of climate change:

  1. We need to protect nature so that it can help us fight climate change. For the Noordhoek valley specifically this means that we need a substantially larger budget for consecutive years for:
    • alien vegetation removal from council land. The R500,000 budgeted for 2023 (for the whole Subcouncil) is insufficient and must be increased in quantity as well as repeated in future years
    • protection of the wetland from encroachment by Masi shacks
    • updating the 1999 wetland management plan: wetland ecosystem health is critical to reduce flooding and fire damages and will cost the CCT a lot of money if it collapses.
    • The current SSEG tariffs, “net consumer” requirement and red tape are not conducive to residents to install solar panels on their rooftops. We urge CoCT to reconsider their policies and include budget to incentivise residents to invest in renewable energy, similarly to what other cities have done/are doing around the world.
    • The current fixed water charges do not stimulate residents to install rainwater tanks. CoCT should consider waiving these fixed charges for residents that collect and reuse rainwater for their domestic use. This should exclude usage of rainwater for irrigation purposes

Finally, we request that the following projects be included in the budget:

  1. Road safety:
    • Pedestrian/Equestrian traffic light on the corner of Noordhoek Main Road and Village Lane (farm village). There are frequent (near) accidents on this intersection
    • Traffic circle on the T junction of Noordhoek Main Road and Silvermine Road. Also here traffic is becoming dangerous
  1. Climate change:
    • Adaptation measures in vulnerable areas such as Masi (planting of trees, fire detection devices for townships, stormwater infrastructure, waste management/services and recycling stations)
    • Budgets for mitigation measures to reduce carbon footprints in Noordhoek: foot/cycle paths, opening up of currently closed off corridors (Oak avenue to Heldray, Francesca Lane to Dunedin), also allowing patrol cars and fire engines access in the event of emergency and linking wildlife corridors more safely to wild spaces and to each other
    • Creation of a local recycling centre for composting of household and restaurant organic waste, collection of recyclable waste currently not collected by CoCT contractor
    • Reviving the CoCT rollout of composting bins to households
  1. Infrastructure:
    • Funding a stormwater drainage survey of Noordhoek. This does not exist at the moment and your reticulation department (Brendon Fortuyn) has requested to have this included in the budget”

With thanks

NRPA