An elderly couple in Lorraine is concerned that the overgrown bushes on the pavement across the road from their house may very soon turn into a public dumping ground or even worse – a hideout for burglars before they strike.
John (77) and Gerda Stroud (74) are also worried about trees in the street that sometimes hang so low that visibility for traffic is obscured and could lead to serious accidents.
According to Gerda, they have often seen people disappearing into the bush, whilst others that pass by, use it as a toilet.
During PE Express’s visit to the site, municipal workers had already started trimming some of the trees on the side of the Stroud residence but on the opposite side of the road, the grass was almost knee-high and the bushes overgrown.
“It needs to be cut back drastically. A normal lawnmower or weed eater will no longer be sufficient to cut it down to a responsible length,” Gerda said.
“This place has also become a dumping ground and we fear that the situation will become similar to what has happened in Willow Road: a public dumping ground.”
She pointed to an opening in the dense bushes big enough for someone to crawl through and said: “That is a space that someone has opened for themselves in order to hide and peep through the bushes.
“If they had to stay there we would be sitting ducks for break-ins or worse,” she added.
“My husband and I are pensioners. He has a heart problem and I have arthritis and a hip problem, but if we had the strength and the equipment to do this, we would have done it ourselves.
“We have contacted our councillor, Gustav Rautenbach and would like to mention that he has always been very supportive and addressed problems with the municipality on our behalf, but this time it would appear that he has had no response.”
Gerda added that she understood it was a difficult time for the municipality because of the lockdown period, but that they desperately needed the municipality to give attention to this problem.
Meanwhile, Rautenbach inspected the site and immediately contacted the NMBM again to follow up on the query.
“There is a backlog. For months, we were under a hard lockdown and during that time, the municipality only performed essential services. This part of the public health directorate was not deemed as being essential,” he said.
“I went for an inspection and saw that the trees are being trimmed. I communicated with the municipal official about the bush clearing on the other side of the street and he informed me that work will commence soon as the tender for bush clearing had recently been finalised,” Rautenbach explained.
“I apologise that it has taken so long. I always try everything in my power to ensure that service delivery takes place in my area,” he said.
MMC for Public Health in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, Lance Grootboom, said that his directorate would visit the site as soon as possible for inspection and to establish who the land across the road from the Stroud residence belongs to.
“If it’s public property then it belongs to and should be maintained by the municipality. If it’s private property then maintenance is the responsibility of the owner.
“The land could also belong to the provincial department, hence we would need to investigate first to find out who it belongs to,” Grootboom said.
He added that the NMBM cannot develop or maintain property that does not belong to them as it would be seen as irregular expenditure.
He referred to the long grass and said that if it’s the municipality’s property and grass hasn’t been cut, it could be due to the fact that there is currently no contract for grass cutting in place.
“We are now in the final procurement processes of securing a grass cutting contract and then we’ll start cutting grass. The first step, however, would be to find out who the land belongs to and I hope to do that this week,” he said.
