After the article about residents voicing their concerns on the Table View beachfront was published in last week’s TygerBurger, the City of Cape Town’s head of coastal management, Natalie Newman, has since shed some light on the upgrades.
According to ward councillor Nicky Rheeder, she has been fighting for this project for over six years.
Newman says the project includes, as shown on the plans at the open day held on 2 April, the demolition of the two defunct ablution facilities, the construction of two new facilities, as well as the upgrade of two existing facilities.
“The City did include concept designs for what was termed a recreational precinct which entailed converting and expanding the old tourism office into a law enforcement and lifesaving facility. These are much-needed services in the area. Unfortunately due to a lack of funding these concepts were excluded from the project,” Newman says.
She adds that these concepts were not presented to the public at the open day as these plans were not included in the detailed design “and as such are not included in the construction contract to be awarded in August 2023. Notwithstanding, should the relevant asset owners for such a facility wish to proceed with the construction of this facility, funding will require to be obtained, drawings refined, the proposals presented to the public, and possibly environmental authorisation obtained before designs could be finalised, contracts advertised and awarded for construction to commence. To date, as far as this branch is aware there is no project in the pipeline for development in the next three to five years,” she says.
The new ablution
In addition to the above-mentioned, Newman says that following the comments received at the Open Day regarding a lack of ablution facilities south of marine circle, the design team revisited the area and the location of the ablution facilities along the 3 km stretch of coastline.
“It was determined that the lack of ablution facilities to the south of Marine Circle would mean people would have to walk in excess of 800 m to the nearest facility. Considering children and the elderly this was considered unacceptable. As such, it was agreed to relocate the new proposed ablution immediately north of Marine Circle to the south of Marine Circle. This new ablution is now proposed adjacent to the old tourism office,” she says.
This will provide much-needed ablution facilities to the visitors of the area that access the beach via the KFC parking, as well as to the many recreational users that frequent this area.
The relocation of this ablution also allows for better distribution of facilities along the 3 km length of beachfront, Newman says.
“As this change was as a result of public comments received we did not hold another open day to present this change and proceeded to include this change in the detailed design for implementation as part of the civils contract commencing in August 2023. The design of the ablutions was also further refined to reduce the structures in height and to limit visual impact.
Table View beachfront to benefit
Newman says the beachfront is a public space that belongs to all and it is a constitutional right to have safe access to the coast.
“This project will result in a significant investment to Table View beachfront which will benefit residents, visitors and investors alike. However, to provide a successful project we do need to provide public facilities such as ablutions, and possibly in the future lifesaving and law enforcement facilities to ensure a safe environment for a quality user experience. So while such a “recreational precinct” is not included in this project, the space has been provided for such development to be considered in the future,” she adds.
