It’s taken a while, but Pelican Heights‘ Civic Association say they are finally getting the attention from City services that they have been asking for.
Hidden away between the nature reserve and the beach, the small residential area has only one entrance and for a long time it had been overlooked, including by criminals, but that has changed.
Civic chair Ismail Janodien said the parks and public spaces were mostly neglected until the civic association started turning up the pressure on their ward councillor.
“We have to keep them accountable,” he said. “The ward councillor said she actually likes it that we keep her accountable.”
Janodien said the civic has been active for two years and it’s taken them that long to get “action”.
They have a list of items that need attention in the area and it has been slow going getting most of those items on the City’s radar.
“We have been begging the City for two years but nothing was happening,” Janodien said.
Taking action
In August they bought palm trees at their own expense and planted them at the entrance to the area.
The move not only got more residents’ attention but also got them more involved. Interested residents have been split into groups to take responsibility for watering the trees.
Janodien said the trees were the first step in the civic’s long-term project to beautify the entrance to the area. The next step is getting the wall repaired and painted.
They hope that this second step can be done in conjunction with the City and other government departments.
Janodien said this is looking more and more likely as previously emails to City departments went unanswered for a long while, but now they are getting responses timeously.
“Because we built up a record of engagement,” Janodien said. “We started by sending emails out and then following up. We have been asking for traffic calming since 2022.”
Janodien said the civic had been persistent about contacting the City and regularly following up and then finally a few months ago, they received a reply: “Once they saw that we were keeping them accountable.”
Other projects on the civic’s radar include improving security.
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