The main arterial roads out of the City are jam-packed at rush hour. The billions spent on the N1 and N2/M3 upgrades have seen little or no change in the daily bumper-to-bumper rivers of cars trying to flee the City after work. Upper and Lower Main Roads (oh, ok, Albert and Victoria) are two lanes wide, but barely passable with double-parked cars and stopped taxis and people driving like brainless cows.

So what’s new? Well, the increasing hordes rat-running through Woodstock, Walmer Estate and University Estate to get around the sclerotic arterials. City of Cape Town’s Roads Department is looking to do something about it after years of increasingly strident complaints from residents and civic bodies. Ward Councillor Brett Herron organised a public meeting at the Civic Centre to allow the Roads Dept to explain the results of their study, and what they proposed to do about it on Tues 8th Nov.

There are four main routes for rat-running: all start at the Chester Road entrance at the edge of District Six, and variously run along Upper Cambridge Rd, along Chester and into Coronation, exiting either to the M3 via Upper Roodebloem or onto the N2 at the Holiday Inn, or via Roodebloem onto the N2; or the extremely twisty Searle-Warwick-Hay-Mountain Road run. There are other routes, but these are the biggies in terms of clear rat-runners (rather than local residents returning home).

Turning Nerina into a one-way has helped a lot to reduce speeding and rat-running past the school and clinic, but there are still many vehicles that ignore the one-way and take a chance.

The stunningly lacklustre performance of Traffic Services (aka “the traffic police”) is not helping – under-resourced, under-managed and under-whelming, Cape Town’s law enforcement on the roads is spotty at best, so any solution needs to assume visible policing will not be central.

Possible Solutions

Sean Glass of the Transport Department (don’t forget Cllr Herron is Mayoral Committee Member for Transport, Roads & Stormwater, so this may explain some action happening here at last) gave a presentation, with two main options:

• Option 1: A boom across Chester Road from Keizersgracht between 16h00 and 18h00 – this would require a boom be built, and manned every day. This would prohibit any vehicles except emergency vehicles and government ministers late for sunset drinkies entering Woodstock during peak hours. Not great if you’re a Woodstock/WE/UE resident, and requires substantial cap-ex and op-ex spend.
• Option 2:Regulatory signage – essentially a no-entry sign at the Chester Road entrance for 16h-18h00 – this is cheaper, but requires regular law enforcement at a very busy intersection. Also a major inconvenience for locals coming home.
• Option 3: Regulatory signage ‘inside’ the suburb to allow freer movement for locals, but makes rat-running difficult. No-entry signs 16h-1800 would be placed on Upper Melbourne Road prohibiting entry into Coronation, Chester and Eden Roads, and on Upper Mountain stopping passing through Rhodes Ave. A further no-entry 16h-18h00 would be placed where Queens Road enters Hat Street. A ‘no right turn 16h-18h00 would be placed at the bottom of Upper Mountain to stop access to Roodebloem Rd onramps to the N2.

What do you think? Council wants to get feedback by latest end-November, so Email word@woodstock.org.za or visit the WoodstockZa Facebook page (please don’t paste into the Group, it needs to be shut down and everything moved to the Page).

With regard to other hot-spots for residents, especially those with speedster probelms, Upper Cambridge Road has had traffic calming measures (essentially speed bumps) approved and is now waiting funding (which may take six months or more). Other roads (Mountain, Roberts, etc) are being considered for more traffic calming.

In terms of enforcement, Cllr Herron acknowledged the terrible state of Traffic Services generally in Cape Town, and said it is being addressed (although no specifics forthcoming). What will help is that two neighbourhood Safety Officers per Ward are being put in place. This sounds good, although Ward 57 is most of the City Bowl suburbs, so a massive, densely populated area. These two should start work in the next few months once training is done. Metro Police have also motivated that reservists be authorised to issue tickets in their areas for illegal parking, etc. This could make a big difference to easing congestion and tempers.

So – look at the proposals, give it a think, give your feedback. To see the proposed rat-traps in Option 3, check here (click for full-size version).

• guide significant changes in land use; and
• guide public investment in infrastructure (such as roads, clinics and sports fields).

It matters to our neighbourhood.

The draft documents are attached. Please contact UWRA at committee@woodstock.org.za as soon as possible if you have questions or comments.

• TableBay_Executive_Summary_s
• Table Bay District_SDP_EMF_Aug 09_fin

• Red (no parking) lines to be painted on the corners of Roodebloem Road with respectively Palmerston Road; Balfour Street; Chamberlain Street; Salisbury Street; and Lawley Road.
• Red lines to be painted on all pedestrian crossings.
• Warning signs to be placed on Roodebloem Road (above and below Salisbury Street) in both directions, reading:

This is a residential area

Respect the speed limit

Watch out for pedestrians

• Additional visible speed limit signs to be placed in Roodebloem Road.
• Two additional pedestrian crossings to be placed in Roodebloem Road below Salisbury Street.
• All pedestrian crossings in Roodebloem Road to be marked with flashing warning lights.
• The corner of Roodebloem Road and Salisbury Street to be marked with flashing warning lights.
• The traffic department to supply a traffic official (“lollipop man”) for the pedestrian crossing in Roodebloem Road closest to Chamberlain Street in the morning and afternoon at school opening and closing hours.
• Lawley Road (coming into Roodebloem Road) to be turned into a Stop Street.

These proposals have many times been suggested and requested by our community in public meetings and in correspondence.

In addition to all this we need to speak to Council’s Traffic Department about curbing the use of large parts of Woodstock as a rat run during traffic peak hours.

We hope that somebody from the Traffic Department will be at our General Meeting on 22 July to answer our queries.

Comments must be submitted before 15 July 2009.

Follow this link: http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/Pages/DraftPublicParksBy-law.aspx

As Chairperson of the Woodstock Community Police Forum (WCPF) I would like to respond to the article “Woodstock crime soars” in the Weekend Argus of 18 April 2009, so that the rather narrow and one-sided view of the writer and the business owners referred to in the article can be put in the right perspective.

It is the job of the Community Police Forum to monitor the police service in the area and we can state without hesitation that the Woodstock police are working extremely hard at reducing crime. The police are constantly keeping abreast of crime patterns and device their crime fighting strategies accordingly. There is good police visibility in the area and they make better use of modern technology to link suspects to crimes.

But it is a well-known, well-researched and well-established fact that the police cannot do their job without the help of the community. The Community Police Forum has monthly meetings. Both SAPS and the organisations that form part of the Forum have done their best to publicise contact details of Woodstock SAPS and Patrol Vehicles to the community in the local press and via public meetings.

It must be stressed that in most parts of the Woodstock precinct great strides have been made in reducing crime by an excellent co-operation between community and police. Therefore the article is by no means a true reflection of the entire Woodstock precinct as the headline implies. On the whole and through the hard work of residents in the area, Woodstock is turning the tables tremendously on the negative image of the past.

However there are still parts of the community, which are not coming to the party. The area (Lower Woodstock) that the article refers to is a typical example of this. The Sector Forum (a body in which police and community work together) in this sector basically only has one community member, because residents are refusing to get involved. There is no active civic organisation, like in other parts of the precinct. When public meetings are held, very few people show up.

Business owners are the worst culprits and show no interest at all in what is going on. There isn’t a Business Forum. I don’t know any of the business owners mentioned in this article, because none of them has ever approached the Community Police Forum to complain about police service or to sit together with us and work on a strategy to fight crime. It is typical that one of the business owners states that they caught a person who stole a handbag and “had to bribe them to get the back bag” instead of taking the guy to the police station (which is practically next door to them) or calling the police. Did nobody have a cell phone, so that they at least could have taken a photo of the perpetrator?

As is clear from this example it is a fact that people are not reporting crime, opening cases and supporting the police in the follow up, because a lot of people withdraw their statements again or refuse to testify in court. How can they then expect the police to deal with the criminals effectively?

It is all very well for residents and business owners to complain about crime levels to the press, but they themselves sit back and do nothing, while expecting things to happen. I would urge these people to get involved with the Police Forum, Sector Forum and SAPS, and stand together. Only an organised effort is going to make a difference.

Adding to all this I can write long stories about a Justice system, which is failing us miserably and does not prosecute criminals.  I can go on about Metro Police, which is basically non-existent in the Woodstock area and in any case “don’t know what they are doing” (a statement made this week by City councillors, with which I wholeheartedly agree). I can say that big property owners in the area – like City Council, Intersite, Portnet and Metrorail – are refusing to do anything about the shack dwellers on their properties referred to in the article. Unfortunately the police cannot do anything without the proper legal back up.

The message is clear. The police can not do it all on their own. Other role-players need to step up and get involved. Don’t just criticise the police for not doing enough, while refusing to do anything yourself or getting involved.

Residents and business owners can contact me for more information. I would also be interested to hear their suggestions on how to improve the situation. I can be contacted on 083 298 1009 or teun.baartman@gmail.com.

Teun Baartman

(Chairperson Woodstock Community Police Forum)

In addition, UWRA envisaged the RAP project as a job creation project.  The RAPpers get a temporary job, money and food and eventually we hope that they move on to more permanent employment. So far the first RAPpers have already moved on to better jobs.  In this way we hope that the RAP project will also become an upliftment project.

RAP has gone through some changes since its inception.  We learned that even a small scale project like this requires hands-on management.

The project was handed over to the very competent Karen Cain, a Woodstock resident and active community member, during the course of 2008.  The project is financially supported by these Woodstock businesses: Skyrove, Cape Town Deco Lodge, Roodebloem Studios, Jamaicamecrazy and Amazing Spaces.

RAP now employs two Zimbabweans from the Haven Night Shelter. The RAPpers clean once a week and are paid R100 each per day, in addition to receiving a food parcel.

It is our hope that both of these men will find better jobs.  Karen Cain knows each one of them well and can therefore give reliable references & character witnesses.

You may be interested to know more about them:

MATTEUS

Matteus is a 36-year old Zimbabwean who fled to SA because of political violence.  Matteus and his wife Patience had to leave their 5 year old daughter, Violet, in Zimbabwe. Patience slept on the street but fortunately she was eventually picked up and taken to a Haven night shelter.

From there Patience managed to organise for Violet to be taken to Johannesburg.  The Haven helped her to have Violet brought down to Cape Town by a truckdriver.   For a while Violet stayed with a foster family in Woodstock.  Patience & Matteus recently had their second child, Antony Daniel.

Matteus is employed once a week as a Rapper.  In addition he makes & sells frames.  His business has steadily grown, in fact so much so that he has been able to move his family to a rented room in Plumstead.  

The family is legally in SA although as with the other RAPper, Divine, the bribe payable to Nyanga Home Affairs Office is a monthly expense.   The corruption at Nyanga Home Affairs has been reported on extensively in newspapers and on radio.  Matteus and Divine need to pay R300 per month, essentially a bribe to Home Affairs in return for legal residence.

Matteus would like to do a hospitality course.  In the meantime he has managed to get a stand in Simonstown where he sells his frames as well as vegetables.

The Haven nightshelter has received some funds from the Rotary Club.  With this the Haven buys good nutritious food which Matteus then makes up into daily or weekly food parcels.

If you would like to assist Matteus please buy one of his frames.  You can contact him on 084 871 5313. The frames are also exhibited at Cape Town Deco Lodge, 22 Roodebloem Road (entrance round the corner on Hilyard Street).

DIVINE

Divine also fled Zimbabwe due to political unrest and ended up at the Haven nightshelter.  Like Matteus he pays a R300/month bribe to Nyanga Home Affairs Office.

Divine has recently completed a hospitality course with Job Start, a Cape Town based NGO.  He is currently looking for a job as a waiter or barman.  However, he worked as a vet in Zimbabwe and his real love is still animals.  Divine is a responsible, caring person who has been put in charge of all the animals at the night shelter, clipping fur, defleaing and deworming them and generally looking after them.

Although still living at the night shelter, he is currently looking for a job at a hotel, guesthouse or lodge so that he can move out.

Divine would like to live on a farm and work with animals.  If you would like to assist him you could hire him as dog walker or animal sitter.  Contact Divine, or leave a message with Karen Cain at the Haven Night shelter, on tel. (021) 671 4209.

In a recent High Court case concerning the construction of a 5-storey house in an area of Cape Town with a 3-storey limit (presumably a loss of sea view was the problem), the Court remarked that you “are required to check actively for building plans every time any building work commences on a neighbour’s property.” Delay may disentitle you not only from having the approval of the plans set aside, but also from stopping construction in the interim.

Having said that, if you are the owner who is building, think carefully about starting work if approval of your plans is in any way open to challenge – take advice on whether you should first get the written consent of all neighbours.

The case in question shows the danger of proceeding regardless. The plan approval followed the granting of departures from zoning regulations and relaxations of title deed restrictions and, although the neighbours only realised that there was a problem after a considerable amount of construction had already taken place (some R13.4m worth), the Court found that the neighbour had given plausible reasons for the delay in acting, and ordered a halt to all building work. Worse, a demolition order is threatened if the plan approval is set aside.

(From newsletter by Maurice Phillips – Wisenberg)

UWRA COMMENT:

Complaints from residents about building work in their area will be taken up with City Council by UWRA and this could lead to work being stopped and/or delayed.

It is always advisable to consult UWRA and the Aesthetics Committee before your start renovations or building work. We can advise you on how to go about it in line with the heritage criteria for Woodstock. And again: if the plans are referred to us by Council at a later stage, it could lead to significant delays.

So consult us right from the beginning.

UWRA has stated in the Woodstock Development Framework that Woodstock should remain a residential area and business creep into the area must be avoided. Rezoning of the above properties might open the door for all kinds of other businesses operating there in the future: totes, workshops, garages, places of assembly.

Some time ago we asked the Woodstock residents for comment and we only received responses, which stated that people were against the rezoning.

UWRA has officially submitted a letter of objection to the rezoning to the relevant council department (see below). The process will now follow its course and we will let you know of the outcome as soon as we hear anything.

uwra-excite-objection

• High Walls are NOT safe. A high see-through fence around the house with lockable gates is much safer due to the advantage of improved visibility.
• Ensure all doors are locked and windows closed when you are not at home. Never leave keys in the door.
• Lock all tools away – ladders, axes, spades, picks, screwdrivers, hammers can be used in an attack or to break into your house.
• Get into the habit of not immediately falling asleep after switching off the lights.
• You should not be visible in the bedroom from the outside when you are asleep.
• Always keep a torch nearby at night and when you use it, ensure that you do not give away your position.
• When you are out late in the evening or at night, be aware of your surroundings and if you don’t feel safe or comfortable, contact your security provider (they should come to your assistance) or the Woodstock SAPS Sector 2 Patrol Vehicle or Woodstock Station – see numbers below.
• Get to know your neighbours and get their phone numbers. Your neighbour is closest when you need help and good neighbours can support and help each other. Also inform each other about anything suspicious.
• Get a whistle and blow it loudly when something happens. People will come to your assistance.
• Vary your daily routine, because you never know who is watching you.
• Involve employees, as they are part of the family/team and must be involved in maintaining security on an equal footing.
• Do not employ casual workers without a reference.
• Do not leave valuable items in your car!!!
• These are the essential phone numbers you must have programmed into your phone and stuck to your fridge or front door:
  • Woodstock SAPS Patrol Vehicle Sector 2 – 082 443 5129
  • Woodstock SAPS Shift Captain – 082 469 2522
  • Sector Manager Constable Prins – 082 302 6789
  • Number of your security provider – ADT, City Bowl, Chubb, etc.
  • Number of your neighbour(s)

Also: report all crime – even if it seems trivial to you. Woodstock Police need this information to effectively combat crime in our area!

UWRA has made contact with the owner/developer to find out what he plans to do with the plot. We want to establish a positive relationship so that we can give constructive comment at an early stage. The developer has promised that someone would contact us to discuss the plans, but so far we have not heard or seen anything.

UWRA has also kept close contact with the various council departments about future plans for the plot. Apparently plans for a 4 or 5 storey block of flats have been submitted, but not finalised yet. Council officials have assured us that the plans will be send to UWRA for comment.

We will keep you in the loop and let the community know when the plans arrive.