Subcouncil 17 has resolved that the people who live next to public lanes should not have to pay a lease fee for its closure.

A motion requesting this was submitted to the City by the chair and Ward 43 councillor Elton Jansen and seconded by councillor Joan Woodman on Friday 12 June.

It was tabled for discussion and support at the Subcouncil meeting on Monday 15 June.

Jansen said: “We had a meeting on Friday with Property Management and the Regional Manager.”

He said that while residents are in favour of the lanes being closed, they do not want to enter into lease agreements for the closure.

“The residents are technically right. We’ve identified a safety risk — these lanes are creating spaces where people carry out all sorts of criminal and indecent activities, and some of the residents have already closed these lanes to make the area a bit safer. Safety was one of the key motivations why these lanes must be closed. So it cannot be that we now put the burden on seniors and adjacent property owners to pay the City a lease amount annually — even though it’s minimal — to pay the City to create a safe area,” he said.

Why these lanes exist

According to the motion many of Mitchells Plain’s public lanes were created as a result of apartheid-era spatial planning and design, which placed control and separation above community safety and cohesion. Over time, these lanes have become hotspots for criminal activity, illegal dumping, substance abuse and other behaviour that threatens the safety and wellbeing of residents.

The police, local neighbourhood watches and community members have all identified the lanes as spaces that make crime easier and compromise security.

What the motion resolves

Subcouncil 17 resolves to:

• Support the closure of public lanes in Mitchells Plain where a safety risk has been identified and backed up through police incident reports, law enforcement records and/or community submissions.
• Acknowledge that many of these lanes are a legacy of apartheid spatial planning and that closing them forms part of building safer, more united neighbourhoods.
• Request the City’s department of property management, law enforcement, and urban mobility to give priority to investigating and reporting on lanes already flagged by communities and ward structures.
• Resolve that the financial cost of approved lane closures — including surveying, legal fees and the physical cost of closing the lane — shall not be carried by adjacent property owners, as these steps serve the wider public interest.
• Mandate the City to look into budget options, including Ward Allocation, Safety and Security funding, or Urban Settlements Development Grant (USDG) funding, to cover lane closure costs where community safety is at risk.
• Recommend that all lane closure applications linked to safety risks be brought together and reported to Subcouncil 17 within 60 days, with recommendations for how they should be carried out and funded.
• Note that public participation must still take place in line with the municipal planning by-law and City policies before any final closure is approved.
• Cancel existing lane lease agreements.

“It is therefore inequitable to expect one or two households to carry the cost of correcting a spatial legacy that harms the whole community,” the motion reads.

The motion is also linked to lane closure applications and investigations already before Subcouncil 17, and aims to establish a consistent and fair approach to funding and carrying out closures.

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