A tug of war has ensued between Poole’s Bay residents and the Cliff Path Action Group (CPAG), after the Poole’s Bay Residents’ Association delivered a Notice of Motion against the CPAG on 7 March to stop the construction.
“After the Notice of Motion we set the ball rolling,” Jobre Stassen from the CPAG said. “We set up a petition and got legal assistance, and we are happy to announce that the interdict has been removed and a review application placed on a semi-urgent roll.
“The CPAG has undertaken not to build in front of Bayview until 1 February 2025. I want to make it clear this was not on the schedule anyway. And no building takes place from 1 July 2024 until 31 January 2025, as per the Environmental Approval. We look forward now to completing the path.”
According to Linda Musson she applauds the Poole’s Bay Residents’ Association for standing up for their rights to stop construction on the cliff path connection.
“Their rights are just as important as anyone else’s,” she said in a letter to Hermanus Times, “based on fact and not elitist, privileged or politically motivated as some like to imply.”
In the letter Musson requests the CPAG’s response to the following concerns: . Why was an out-of-town firm, ASHA Consulting (Pty) Ltd from Lakeside, Cape Town, assigned to spearhead this campaign? . Has CPAG considered the consequences once that area is readily accessible to the public, and will it provide a daily cleaner armed with the necessary equipment to retrieve every piece of fishing line and garbage that gathers in between the rocks and seaweed and harms the marine life? . Has CPAG considered the traumatic impact on homeowners who have owned property in that area for many years and, in some cases, generations?. Would CPAG be employing 24-hour security patrols at their cost?
According to Stassen the CPAG works with outside consultants to gain an objective opinion. “There are pros and cons to such a choice, but at the start of the project there was too much emotion in town.”
She invited all residents to go out and walk there today, and help collect the plastic waste. “I have personally collected numerous full black bags. Go over low tide and report back. Condoms and liquor bottles littered the current coastline before construction commenced.”
Stassen emphasised that democracy is about majority rule. “A petition to continue the path gained almost 5 000 signatures in two weeks. Not sure what people were unaware of; if you border on the sea you bought next to public open space, right? So if the public decides to use the space that belongs to them are they now in the wrong? Please open your mind to the future of Hermanus, because we can’t be stuck in the past. “The people of Hermanus are standing up for their right to choose where to walk. For those who do not want their eco-tourism experience interrupted by the unbearable noise of traffic will have a choice to walk along the coast.”
