12th Street Bridge Blessing

On the 9th of December 2006, the residents and community of Parkhurst had an official opening ceremony and blessing of the recently completed footbridge 1 million Rand bridge. Ex-Councillor Kim Lugli, who has been championing the building of a bridge at this dangerous river crossing for over 10 years, made a welcoming speech before cutting the red ribbon.

In the speech she paid tribute to the two most recent deaths at this spot: (1) Mr. Mafa Maboleka of the Parkhurst Community Centre, was killed by thieves on 5 December 2004, when returning from a Victory Park bank with the annual Stokvels savings; (2) Ms Jennifer Maboleka who was drowned on 13 December 2004 while crossing the river to visit her mother who worked in Parkhurst.

The wardens of St Pauls Anglican Church then delivered a blessing and prayer for the bridge, and coloured prayer flags were tied to the railings by the those who attended the opening

The PVRA would like to thank the sponsors (Wendy Machanik Properties, Parkhurst Bookshop and Nan Roberts Estates) and the Wardens of St Pauls Church.

Parkhurst News

Parkhurst Fair Raffles: The winner of the Itec mini Motor Bike Raffle was Parkhurst resident Sue Carvalho (pictured right). The winners of meal vouchers from Parkhurst restaurants that were raffled off from the entrance fee were residents Mrs Gorton and Kurt Pagel. We hope they all enjoy their respective prizes.

Village Vet Changes: The Village Vet in 4th Avenue will no longer be available for veterinary consultations. The vets have relocated to the premises of the Craighall Park Animal Hospital on the corner of Buckingham and Clarence Aves near the Spar. You can still buy your pet food and other accessories at the old Parkhurst premises until March 07. Contact Craighall Park Animal Hospital 011-442-7361.

BP Garage: As we all know, the BP Garage site in 4th Ave was auctioned on the 22nd November 06. It was eventually knocked down to Rolls Royce in the UK for R6.8 million (with taxes and commission it came to R8.4 million). Now we are all waiting to see what will happen to the space.

Senior Citizens Tea Party: The annual tea party that is sponsored by Nan Roberts Estates will be held on the 24th of February next year.

Inappropriate Commercial Development in Parkhurst

I expect you have been following the hissy fits by the various commercial developers who are always trying to push the limits of the legal regulations in the suburb. Traditionally in Parkhurst, there has always been a problem trying to marry the aspirations of the traders and the residents.

Now we all like to be able to walk up and grab a coffee or meal, shop for a birthday pressie and ask advice on how to repair a household snafu. But we also want to live in a suburb where we can walk on the pavements and enjoy a reasonable standard of living.

The Johannesburg Municipality has rules called Bylaws that are legally enforceable. These Bylaws cover the gamut of city living from what you can do on a pavement, to where businesses may or may not operate, and also include picking up your dog's pooh in the street.

Although the PVRA has some political clout, we are really at the mercy of the City Council who are legally meant to enforce their Bylaws. Really what the PVRA is now primarily doing is acting as a watchdog to ensure that the Bylaws are not contravened and to head off any trouble before illegal businesses buy and start developing property. We take the contraventions to the city and hope that they act in upholding their own laws.

To see the result of untrammeled commercial development, you only have to visit Melville. 10 years ago, Melville was one of Johannesburg's restaurant meccas with new restaurants opening all the way down 7th Street and into 4th Avenue. Now, these restaurants and shops have been sold several times over and there are a plethora of night clubs and bars as the area started degrading. They all stay open to the early hours of the morning with the result that there is a lot of road congestion, noise and disturbance to the surrounding residences.

We have also found that where you have restaurants and inappropriate businesses, you also get parking and traffic issues. We are now picking up several attempts to turn more properties in 6th St into restaurants despiet the Spatial Development Framework for Parkhurts prohibiting this. Furthermore we are noticing several attempts to consolidate properties in 6th St. The developers are eyeing the buildings behind them in 5th and 7th Street as they need parking and more space, and so will then encroach into these residential streets.

So really, it doesn't matter whether the business is of benefit to the suburb, or whether they are offering a useful service, or whether they fit in. If they are illegal, they should not be operating.

If there weren't watchdogs like the PVRA who keep an eye on the suburb, you may well end up living next to a nightclub, an engineering works or a large 3 storey business that overlooks your back yard.

Operation 72

At the beginning of December 06 the Parkview Police instigated an initiative called “Operation 72” that lasted for 72 hours over a long weekend. Residents Associations were invited along on the 1st night and out of the 16 suburbs in the precinct only 2 suburbs were represented. There was one Emmarentia rep and THREE from the Parkhurst Village Residents Association: Greg Margolis, Hayley Saks and Colin Braude.

The upshot of this involvement was that Emmarentia and Parkhurst became the focus of the crime fighting initiative and about 20 people were arrested. The areas where these baddies hang out (ie the old Parkhurst Soccer Field and Bowls Club, as well as various spots along the Braamfontein Spruit) were raided and the Parkview police now know where to look.

If you have been following the fortunes of the wily and extremely dangerous criminal, Ananias Mathe, you will know that he operated in Parkhurst, Craighall Park and Blairgowrie.

He would stake out possible targets in the suburbs while going to ground at night in these dodgy areas. It was no accident that he was caught after breaking into a granny flat in Craighall Park.

It is this type of proactive action that will help to stop these criminal activities in our suburb. The more security cars and personel on the street, the more links with the SA Police Services, the more vigilant the residents, the lower the crime.

Contact PVRA Chairman and Security Portfolio Head Greg Margolis for more info: 082-459-0702

Resolution Recycling

A new recycling iniative has been launched in Johannesburg. Despite there being recycling bins for paper, plastics and glass at the Pikitup depot in Victory Park Road, it is still difficult to start recycling as you have to separate out your recyclable materials, load them into your car and drive to the waste site.

Most of us are too busy to do this, but there is a willingness to recycle if it is made easy. The waste paper Ronnie Bag project by Sappi is a good example - quite a few households in Parkhurst put out paper every two weeks for collection.

So in absence of Pikitup providing an easy recycling solution for the city, Resolution Recycling have come up with a good idea.

They will drop off a blue 240 litre plastic bin into which you place ALL YOUR RECYCLABLE WASTE. Paper, clean tins, rinsed plastic containers, old batteries, glass and printer cartidges. They will then collect the bins every two weeks (probably on a Friday). So all you need is the bin and they will do the rest.

Now there are costs, but they are not prohibitive. There is a monthly service fee of R30 a month paid annually (R360) when they drop off the bin. This is likely to drop to R20 a month soon as the service grows.

I notice that many residents are putting out overflowing trash bins and some have also ordered a second bin at R6.90/month (incl VAT). For sa few rand more you will be able to reduce the amount of trash in the Pikitup bin, avoid an overloaded and messy bin, as well as the neccesity of a second trash bin.

Resolution Recycling will also donate R1 per household collection to a charity. In Forest Town, they are giving the money to the Forest Town school for special needs children and we would probably so the same.

More INFO: 011-618-2246 or resolutionrecycling@54.co.za

Overcharging for Bins

Several Parkhurst residents have brought it to our attention that City Council is overcharging many residents for their Pikitup bins. If you look at your statement you should see an item called “Bin Rental” that should be billed at R6.05/month.

But one resident showed me a copy of her bill and she is being charged double - R12.10/month. To date she has not been able to get the City to reduce the amount.

It may seem silly to quibble over a R6 (it comes to R6.90 with VAT) amount, but it is a point of principle for many people that we not be ripped off and that bills be correct. Have a look at your account and let me know if you too are being over charged. Perhaps we can collectively get something done.

Fax or e-mail your statement with the over billing to Tim Truluck, Chair of Environment Sub-Committee. 011-442-5201 (tel&fax) or info@parkhurst.org.za.

Gautrain and Parkhurst

The Gautrain is going to happen and it will make our lives in Parkhurst more difficult from now on.

Firstly there will be 3 years of disruption when we try to get into, or past, Rosebank.

Secondly, when it is up and running, we will experience some pretty bad traffic congestion as commuters and travelers from the suburbs further to the west have to drive through Parkhurst to get to the Rosebank station.

Rosebank Congestion: Basically there will be problems accessing the Malls and shops in Rosebank, as well as trying to get around the area. It will probably best to avoid it altogether when trying to get to the M1 or during office hours and at weekends when the market is on.

Accessing the M1: Bolton Road will be a ONE WAY coming from the M1 so it won't affect us when we are returning to Parkhurst. BUT getting to the M1 we will be diverted into Baker Street past the Rosebank Mall. It will probably take 5-15 minutes longer to do the trip.

Getting into Rosebank: Depending on when and where you go, it looks like there will be quite a bit of confusion as half the traffic that travels along Oxford and Bolton Roads will be diverted through the streets of built up Rosebank. The best bet is to look out for notices in the press and the directional signboards as you approach the suburb.

Parkhurst Congestion: Rosebank is the only Gautrain station between the Joburg CBD and Sandton. And Parkhurst is located on one of the 3 major routes that virtually the whole of West and North-West Johannesburg will be using to get to the Rosebank station (the other routes are Blairgowrie and Greenside).

This will have a tremendous impact on our little suburb. Already heavily congested at rush hour, 6th Street will be virtually impassable and the adjacent 7th and 5th Streets will be major rat runs.

The pressure on the other streets will increase as residents divert their journeys through them (probably along 10th, 16th and 20th Streets as well as 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Aves). So the streets in Parkhurst will be busier, more congested and more dangerous.

But it doesn't end there once you have managed to get out of the suburb, you are going to encounter very bad congestion in the neighbouring suburbs as their residents change their driving patterns to adapt to the through traffic that they are experiencing.

In essence we will be trapped in our suburb. Jan Smuts will become a congested road from Randburg to Parktown; 6th St will be backed up to Linden and beyond.

You will probably have to think about alternative ways of getting to the shops like using the footbridge to walk across to Victory Park, riding a bike or motorbike and using the dedicated bus service that will be on offer once the train starts running.