In an effort to increase the safety of motorists and pedestrians, community members of Newton Park recently came together to repaint several street markings across the area, all on their own.
Starting at 08:00, these residents spent nearly six hours going from street to street, armed with litres of white paint and painted stop signs and repainted the lines on speed humps.
Chairperson of the Newton Park Crime Forum, Johnathan Kruger, said that they had asked the community for volunteers and donations to make the project possible. They had eight people who assisted and even had the help of a Mount Road police officer, who was responsible for traffic control while they were working.
Together, they managed to paint the stops at Checkers in Newton Park, the four-way stop down the road at 5th Avenue and Hurd Street, tackled the speed hump in Mowbray, close to 1st Avenue and the four-way stop at 1st Avenue and Mowbray Street, as well.
“Unfortunately, the municipality has not done any maintenance on roads, street lights and so forth for ages and their budget is depleted, making things more difficult.
“For example, there are currently 18 street lights not working in King Edward Street and no expected time frame on fixing.
“As a community we decided to do this to try to assist in reducing accidents and making the neighbourhood safer for all,” Kruger said.
“Luckily, we organised a stencil for the letters, “STOP” to make things easier. Even though all residents in Nelson Mandela Bay pay their rates, we know that the nothing will be done to resolve the issues and constant excuses.
“As a community we are doing this to improve our area and to not make it political and cause more issues,” he added.
“There are a lot of streets desperately needing the stop street markings done. It’s amazing how residents of Nelson Mandela Bay do not stop or even slow down at speed bumps.
“We have 200 litres of white road marking paint, but still require a few things, such as reflective beads that make the paint reflective at night, and there are so many streets that are in dire need of markings. Also, we are reliant on funds, as well as volunteers from the community, to be able to do this,” Kruger said.
Ward 7 Councillor, Brendon Pegram, who also assisted with the painting, said that it warmed his heart to see how the community had come together to do this.
“I am very proud of them and it is fantastic to see what a community can do if they come together, stand together and organise things together, to uplift the rest of the community. I am super proud of them and my wish is for every suburb to strive towards this,” Pegram said.
“It saddens me that this has to fall on the community. I had a meeting with Roads [and Transport] in January and they told me then that there is no more white paint [for street markings] but they couldn’t tell me why that was the case because at that point, we were already seven months into the new financial year but the white paint is already finished,” he explained.
“I have also written letters to the acting city manager to ask if they have money for virement from other projects just for us and other wards to at least paint street markings but I didn’t even get an acknowledgement.
“Nevertheless, we as the community had an awesome time working together and I am very proud of the progress that we have made,” Pegram added.
