At least one Boston resident is livid about a crèche that started operating in his street without any neighbour’s permission.
The crèche, Kaleidoscope Kids Academy, started operating from a residential home on 16th Avenue in May.
Despite operating from another house for over a year before this, the crèche is not registered and does not have the right zoning.
“The crying of children and the children playing outside have now become a nuisance for the neighbours and their rights to enjoy their property peacefully and undisturbed are now being infringed upon,” a neighbour says. “A complaint of ‘noise nuisance’ has already been lodged with the local police.”
He goes on to say neighbouring property values are affected by the crèche.
“Who is going to buy a house next to a crèche?”
The neighbour wants to remain anonymous for fear of “retribution”. He did, however, spark a lively debate on a Boston community Facebook group earlier this month. In his post, he told others that the crèche isn’t registered as an early childhood development (ECD) facility and asked the aggrieved to complain to the City of Cape Town.
Response
Richard Cairns, owner of the crèche, told TygerBurger the crèche was run from Gladstone Street for a year before moving to 16th Avenue. The safety of children, who had to cross the road to get to the crèche, was becoming a concern and when he saw the ideal property, he moved the crèche to the current house he started renting earlier this year.
The property’s owner died a while ago and is currently managed by lawyers while family members decide the future of the estate. There are 25 children in the crèche, which is open from 06:30 until 17:45, when usually only one child is left.
They applied to all relevant authorities to operate a crèche.
“The only thing left is applying for rezoning,” Cairns said, and added that applying after you operate is the norm when ECDs start operating from homes. “It takes years to get rezoned.”
As to where the crèche is situated, Cairns argued that this is where educare centres operate. “Show me and ECD that isn’t in a residential area,” he said. “They’re not in industrial areas.”
From the moment the crèche opened in 16th Avenue, he started receiving visits from officials, Cairns said. These visits were because of complaints by the neighbour, who also posted on Facebook, he believes.
No application
These include the police, the City of Cape Town, the Department of Social Development and building inspectors.
The departments have all been very helpful, he added, and all have stipulated their requirements, which they have since adhered to. He also pointed out that the crèche is around 100 m from Boston Primary School, which is arguably noisier. Cairns is angry at the neighbour who posted on Facebook. This neighbour has never met him to discuss these problems and has “been bullying and slandering” his business.
Cairns said he would stop operating from the current premises immediately if the relevant authority demands it, but has not received any such demands.
Until such time, neighbours have to wait for official findings and decisions.
Eddie Andrews, the City’s deputy mayor and Mayco member for spatial planning and environment, confirms the City has not received any application to operate a crèche from the premises. The same applies to the premises in Gladstone Street where the crèche was situated.
“If the number of children cared for at the premises exceeds six, an application for consent use is required to the land use management section,” he says.
The fact that the owners have been operating without consent means they will have to hand in a separate application “for determination of an administrative penalty” in addition to the consent use application.
“If a property is used for the conduct of a crèche in contravention of the by-law, any decision on a consent use application can only be taken once a penalty has been determined and paid by the owner of the property.”
As to how many businesses in Boston currently operate without the proper zoning, Andrews says their system can’t provide a quick response to the question.
