UPDATE – Cllr Roberto Quintas Ward 74 Hout Bay & Llandudno
What’s on the Cards for the Bay?
2021 is well under way with many new and exciting as well as long awaited projects anticipated. We as a community, City and globe are busy finding our feet in a ‘new normal’ Covid 19 world, and service delivery remains a priority as well as projects that bring hope, unity and integration.
What I am working toward in this final year of my term and which will be paid for by my Ward allocation includes the upgrade of the Hout Bay Common.
This project began in my first year with the establishment of the Andrews Road park. It has since evolved into an outdoor gym and off-leash dog park, and on the cards for implementation now is the upgraded picnic area with benches and tables under shade trees and which will be fenced to help parents managing toddlers from running into traffic. We will also upgrade and establish paths in the park with swing gates on to the pedestrian crossing. I am also excited about the design that is being approved for a bandstand which will allow our budding music academies, dance and other groups to utilize the space for concerts and performances.
I will also utilize Ward funding this year to extend the river boardwalk as well as invest in hard wearing natural infrastructure to create picnic spaces and leisure areas along the river and vlei. This is vital to ensure that we see more people relishing in this biodiversity heritage zone on our doorstep and foster outdoor activity for families and groups.
Law Enforcement Officer Tsotso who began his service in Hout Bay as our designated Officer and is paid for through my allocation has been tasked with visible policing at problem traffic areas to ensure pedestrians, especially children are safe from reckless driving in the rush hour periods particularly, and he has been mandated to intervene with errant skateboarders and approach their parents amongst his other daily rounds.
Also from my Ward allocation will be the further extension of the Hout Bay Festive Lights project. I began this project a few years ago and in tranches have procured lights for Hout Bay in the Harbour Market area, and then from Chapmans Peak to Princess Circle. This festive season we should see the extension of this project from Princess Circle to Harbour Circle. The lights project is pioneered in the hope that we can encourage families to stroll and take them in, and for visitors from outside of Hout Bay to come and view them and support our local businesses and ultimately and hopefully in time, encourage night time festive ‘open street’ markets where local people have an opportunity to showcase wares and produce.
Larger City of Cape Town projects that Hout Bay can look forward to in 2021 include the establishment of the informal play area at the Hout Bay Sports Complex. This component of the Family Park was unfortunately postponed due to Day Zero and drought mitigation, however we have secured the budget again and will proceed with that imminently. This project includes the establishment of two multi-purpose or combination courts for netball, basketball, volley ball etc. as well as climbing and informal gymnastics apparatus and the upgrade of the parking area. We will also see the rehabilitation and greening of the grass pitch at the Hout Bay Complex, which can be utilized for several sports disciplines including soccer, rugby, hockey and cricket.
The City of Cape Town will also be working on the establishment of additional retention ponds in Imizamo Yethu which will serve to catch and treat grey water, pollutants and solid waste which makes their way down the mountain from Mandela Park, on to the Circle and into the River.
We will also partner with local business to install and manage litter nets at the storm water outflows and further implement our projects which address illegal connections into the sewer system which frustrate the blockages problem and cause multiple health and other issues. Other interventions include a rollout of the “Bin it, Don’t Block It’ education campaign which is already underway as well as enforcement of illegal sewer connections which deposit waste into the storm drains as well as cause havoc with the existing system.
In terms of ‘nuts and bolts’ concerns, I am addressing the resurfacing and patching up and repairing of roads in and around Imizamo Yethu, Hangberg and the Valley as well as ensuring that road markings are repainted, as well as looking at sustainable solutions to addressing the litter issues in our ward. These include a pilot project where door to door collections are potentially made possible in our informal settlements.
What is of utmost importance to our people, is that the City of Cape Town continues with its already in process rollout of reliable, safe, legal and compliant electricity meters to residents of Imizamo Yethu and Hangberg.
Not only does this essential service provide dignity to our people, but importantly it minimizes and mitigates the threat of fires. Our establishment of the Electricity Depot on Harbour Road will go a long way to seeing these project unfold quicker, and will enable the City of Cape Town to attend to power outages and power failures as a result of illegal tampering and vandalism, both of which cause untold misery for the most vulnerable especially.
Lastly, and most importantly the City of Cape Town and I will continue to engage communities and their leadership around the formal housing projects and formal housing solutions for both Imizamo Yethu and Hangberg, and I will continue to drive the transfer of multiple rental stock units to their long term tenants, making them first time home owners with title deeds.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the residents of Ward 74 for their support over the past near five years, and thank them for their patience and understanding particularly during this recent period where the City of Cape Town has had to deliver services during the pandemic despite repeated Covid related depot closures, and the untimely loss of many of our staff due to the Corona virus.
As community, we have weathered fires, unrest, tragedies, Day Zero and Covod 19.
I would also like to extend my heartfelt sympathies to those in our Ward who have lost loved ones in 2020 and wish you all a safe, peaceful, prosperous, proactive and co-operative 2021”
Cllr Roberto Quintas