The latest public property in Paarl which the Drakenstein Municipality intends to rent out or sell, is the Boy Louw sports fields – for decades now a very popular sports facility playing host to sports clubs from across the valley.
This is part of the municipality’s plans to sell or lease around 60 municipal plots in Paarl, Paarl-Oos and Wellington in the next few years.
De Poort in southern Paarl has already been rented out to a development company and the Parys Sports Fields are now in the municipality’s line of fire.
The leasing of the Parys site has again raised the question among interested parties as to whether it paves the way for a waterfront development which was struck off the cards after a court dispute.
Concerns about these developments however are whether the broad public will still have access to these historically “public” facilities. If not, where will so many sporting codes then be permitted to play?
Over the past ten years, Drakenstein Municipality has been steamrolling development in the valley for financial gain.
Yes, development and growth is cardinal, but surely up to a point.
The Drakenstein Valley is already bursting out of it’s seams – is there not a point where enough is enough?
