MINUTES FOR THE MEETING OF THE 15th FEBRUARY 2023

MINUTES FOR THE MONTHLY PUBLIC MEETING OF THE

NEW KILLARNEY-RIVIERA ASSOCIATION

HELD VIRTUALLY OVER THE INTERNET

ON WEDNESDAY 15 FEBRUARY 2023 at 18H30

PRESENT:             Wayne Ford (Killarney Village); Marion Wheater (Riviera Mansions and Cranwell Hall); Shirley Moodley (St Johns Wood); Katia Lodder (Mediterranean); Zeenat Ghoor (St Johns Wood and Killarney Hills); Vas Diar (Mentone Court); Boitumelo Sebambo (Mentone Court).

1.     WELCOME

• Wayne opened the meeting, and welcomed all attendees. Wayne apologised for opening the meeting late, due to some technical issues.

2.     APOLOGIES RECEIVED

Adrienne Egbers (Cranwell Hall); Charles Whyte (Beverly Heights); Annica Marincowitz (Chartwell); Ward Councillor Eleanor Huggett.

3.     DISCUSSION OF TIME CONSTRAINT

• We are using the free-version of Microsoft Teams, which imposes a time limit of one hour on our virtual meeting.
• In addition we have load-shedding in progress, so some people may be participating in this meeting on battery power.

4.     CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES, AND MATTERS ARISING

• The January meeting was cancelled, so there are no minutes to be considered.
• Issues carried over from December are included in this agenda.

5.     STATUS OF OUR SUBURB, AND LIST OF ISSUES REQUIRING ACTION

• The municipal inspector visited our area as planned to inspect the pavement and pothole repairs, supported by the extensive list of issues which we gathered from our residents. He will formally log all of our issues, and will then follow up with the operational managers to ensure that action is taken as soon as their resources and priorities permit. There is no timeline or deadline on this at all. We therefore need to keep up the pressure on JRA and City Parks.
• It was noted that the JRA will focus repair efforts on the busy roads, and that the minor sideroads might wait indefinitely for attention. It was therefore agreed that we should start to research fixing the various pavements and minor roads ourselves. Fixing a major road is dangerous due to heavy traffic, and we need a wayleave to block off a road, so we will wait a while longer in hope of getting municipal action on these particular issues.
• Residents are urged to also report our various pothole problems to the Discovery App, in the hope that this might bring some action too.
• Fixing and replacing missing manhole covers will be very expensive, as each new cover will need to be custom-made. Once again, building up a manhole in a busy road will require closing the road, and thus a wayleave.
• One load of fresh sand was delivered to the park playground as resolved. The cost so far is R2940. We need more fresh sand, but this is a good start.
• A set of swings has been donated to the park by Paulo Joaquim from Seven Oaks. He also paid for it to be professionally installed. The swings are already a big hit with our younger residents. Many thanks to Paulo for this valuable donation!
• The huge ugly recycling bins on the Mentone Court pavement were finally removed on Monday, after months of begging and pleading.
• The Killarney Mall has offered to assist with sweeping and cleaning in that area, and we will liaise with the Mall on this.
• The loitering and the various illegal street activities have thus far largely been contained in this block of 1^st Street, but the problem constantly threatens to spread further afield. We must keep up the pressure on the municipality to enforce their own by-laws while we wait for the Mall to build the promised taxi facility.
• Mentone Court are considering fencing off the part of the pavement which actually belongs to their building, in order to reduce the problematic space.
• Intervention is required for the overgrown pavements on the motorway side of 7^th Street, as the pavement is now completely blocked by vegetation and rubbish. We will either have to do a community clean-up, or we will need to hire a service provider. Wayne will continue to pursue the matter with City Parks and JRA, failing which we will get quotes for a serious clean-up project.
• Pavements in general need an occasional clean-up to remove weeds. This is the type of issue that lends itself to community projects. We need to publicise this idea on the Whatsapp groups, and encourage the members of those groups to get involved as well.
• Illegal taxi rank in 1^st Street – the Killarney Mall is still busy with the planning of their extensive refurbishment, which will include a taxi facility on their premises. However this will not be completed for at least a year.

6.     HAWKERS IN 7^TH STREET

• The municipal parking area in 7^th Street opposite Castlerosse has been used for years by illegal hawkers, and it has been suggested that we should consider creating a legal hawking area in this parking lot, heavily regulated and managed by the JMPD.
• The response from the community thus far has been very negative, due largely it seems to the perception that the hawkers will not bother to comply with the regulations, and that the JMPD will not bother to enforce compliance with the regulations.
• We have therefore not yet formally approached the buildings. We will publicise this suggestion again in the next newsletter, but unless we get some positive response, it seems that the community is opposed to this suggestion, and would prefer to continue with the current by-laws.

7.     GENERAL

The municipality has published the new property valuation roll, which it intends to use to increase our property rates and taxes. At first glance, some of the properties are fairly valued but others have been massively over-valued. The valuations can be viewed at this link:

The meeting was closed at 19h41, with thanks to all who participated.

Our next public meeting will be held virtually on

WEDNESDAY 15 MARCH 2023 AT 18H30

PLEASE PASS ON THESE MINUTES TO OTHER RESIDENTS IN YOUR BUILDINGS

JMPD call centre hotline number – 080 872 3342

JMPD Control Room – 011 758 9620

City emergency hotline on 011 375 5911

SAPS patrol van – 071 675 6001

If you get no response from the patrol van, please call 10111

Councillor Huggett – by SMS or WhatsApp – 071 785 8068