NKRA Communique – April 2024

Hi everyone

We held our April NKRA public meeting via the internet on Wednesday 17 April 2024. The key issues arising from that meeting are included in this newsletter. Our next NKRA public meeting will be held at 18h30 on Wednesday 15 May 2024. All owners and residents of Killarney and Riviera are welcome to participate. An agenda with a Microsoft Teams meeting link will be circulated closer to that date.

The Killarney Mall has undertaken to help with the security at the illegal taxi rank. It was noted that the fear of crime deters residents from walking to the Mall to shop, so it is in everyone’s interest to improve security on the streets and pavements. The Mall has therefore recently implemented a neighbourhood Safety Patrol – a team of trained security guards to conduct regular patrols, to rapidly respond to any reports of suspicious behaviour, to (hopefully) deter criminal activity, and to provide a reassuring sense of safety for residents. This will hopefully improve the situation in 1^st Street as well, but we will monitor the results for a while and see how it goes. We are also asking the Mall to put additional security cameras on their building, overlooking our adjacent pavements and the 1^st Street problem area in particular.

The Killarney Mall has cleaned up the pavement in 4^th Avenue at the traffic circle, and they have planted a number of low-maintenance plants for us. This has greatly improved the visual aspect of this high-traffic corner. These new plants will need to be watered through the winter, so we would appreciate the assistance of the buildings in the vicinity please.

The Mall is also providing a sweeper at the illegal taxi rank to help manage the litter, they are doing a great job of helping maintain the park, and they have offered to contribute toward our next pavement repair project.

The project to substantially refurbish the Mall is still in the planning stage, but we have been told that the planning process is coming to an end, and that they are almost ready to move on to the next phase. I have been assured that the issue of the illegal taxi rank, and its attendant problems, will be included in the final plan. They are also asking residents to make suggestions for additional shops we would like to have, or any other suggestions for improving the Killarney Mall.

The public library might be relocated elsewhere inside the Mall, so we have been asked to wait a while longer before we attempt any interior renovations. However we can meanwhile undertake fundraising on behalf of the library.

We are maintaining a register of all municipal issues requiring repair. So far this includes the broken water meter in Riviera Road which was repaired but is leaking again; the water pipe at the corner of Annerley Road and Federation Road which was repaired but is leaking again; the damaged pavement on the 4^th Avenue bridge where a pipe was repaired but the paving stones were never replaced; a trench which was dug across Riviera Road at the intersection with Killarney Avenue which was never resurfaced; various potholes along 4^th Avenue; and a pothole in Newtown Road at the intersection with 9^th Street. There is also still a lot of serious surface damage to the roads in 2^nd Avenue and 2^nd Street. Please share any other issues of which you are aware, so they can be added to the register. Please also continue to report these issues on the Discovery Pothole App.

The pavements in many places in Killarney are unfit for wheelchair-users. We will try to address this in our pavement repair project, as best our finances permit.

The huge tree stump at the corner of Annerley Road and 7^th Street is a safety hazard, in that it blocks vision for drivers approaching that intersection. This has been reported many times, to no avail. We are now seeking quotes to remove this tree stump ourselves.

It has been suggested to hold regular neighbourhood clean-up marches, where groups of residents assist by clearing litter and weeds in a particular area for a morning. It is great that most buildings take constant care of the pavements in their immediate vicinity, but a handful of pavements are effectively “orphans” with no adjacent buildings – such as the road reserve and motorway embankment in 7^th Street on either side of 4^th Avenue.

We are going to repaint all the street names on the kerbstones at every intersection. This project adds huge value to the area, for minimal cost. We have the stencils, and we are currently seeking quotes from painters.

The Community Policing Forum has been told that the police will be prioritising the elections, so the police presence in our area will be reduced for a while. Vision Tactical Security has some of their marked cars circulating in the trouble spots to provide some deterrence for us. You can contact the Vision Tactical control room on 084 222 2222, or on 010 972 2600, or on 061 071 2001. Their two response vehicles are on 072 830 5305 from 8am to 10pm, and on 071 570 5173 from 10am to 10pm. We thank Vision Tactical Security for this valuable service!

Illegal hawkers and drinking on pavements continues. Gauteng Provincial police raided the drug-sellers in 1^st Street, supported by a private security company, and anumber of arrests were made, but the problem has not disappeared. We are still hoping to get more security cameras in that vicinity, to monitor these issues and to provide some deterrent to the drug sellers and their customers. We will ask the Mall to put extra cameras on their building, to cover the taxi area and its drug sellers as well. To begin with we need to get a camera on the hawker of vegetables in 1^st Street, at the corner of 2^nd Avenue, outside Gleneagles. Residents have reported seeing alcohol being drunk around this hawker.

Vision Tactical Security have developed a security camera system which can communicate the footage to their control centre. This system is also able to identify stolen car number plates. We are pursuing the matter with Vision Tactical, to get more details on specifications and costing. It has been suggested to pay for at least one camera to be installed in 1^st Street.

Pick ‘n Pay in Killarney Mall has a big collection bin for the safe disposal of electronic items. If you have old phones or computers or appliances etc, please dispose of them safely through this recycling project.

The Lhenveolan building in 1^st Street is up for sale. It has 26 flats, some of which have been recently renovated, 18 staff rooms, and 21 parking bays. The asking price is R17.9m, and the agent is Rand Realty, at 011 277 1818. The renovation and upliftment of this building has been a key component of the restoration of 1^st Street, and it is very important for the suburb that the building continues to improve.

The invoices for the NKRA membership subscriptions for the current financial year were sent out in March, and at the time of publishing this newsletter, 31 buildings out of the 55 sectional title buildings in Killarney-Riviera have already paid their NKRA membership subscriptions for the year – this is about 56% of the total. The list of the members for 2024 so far is as follows:

• Berkeley Square
• Beverley Heights
• Brenthurst Court
• Bretton Woods
• Canterbury Close
• Castlerosse
• Chartwell
• Chelston Hall
• Christina Court
• Cranwell Hall
• Daventry Court
• Devon Place
• Earls Court
• Greenhills
• Hampshire Mews
• Hyde Court
• Interlaken
• Killarney Court & Gardens
• Killarney Hills
• Killarney Park
• Killarney Village
• Knightsbridge
• La Carmague
• Mentone Court
• Park Avenue
• Rapallo
• Riviera Mansions
• Riviera Villas
• Splice
• St John’s Wood
• The Rivieras

Many thanks indeed to all these buildings for your on-going support, and also to the various people who make personal donations as well.

We are happy to receive photos of interesting things that might be happening in our area, which we might include in future newsletters. We also welcome all suggestions, on all issues. All interested persons can contact us at wdford@global.co.za to be added to the mailing list. Our website is at www.nkra.org.za.

Please let us know if you have suggestions for future projects to be undertaken by the NKRA on behalf of the suburb. At the moment, these are our primary focuses:

• Developing a register of pavements and potholes that need attention, and undertaking another pavement and pothole fix;
• Acquiring appropriate security cameras in 1^st Street;
• Managing the squatter and hawker and taxi problems in Killarney;
• Making our area safer, by continually warning residents and visitors about crime risks, including the risk of cell-phone snatching on the pavements, and by improving lighting and pavements where possible.

.

Our next public meeting will be held at 18h30 on Wednesday 15 May 2024.

Please would you share this newsletter with all your neighbours in Killarney-Riviera?

Greetings to all, keep well, and keep safe.

Wayne Ford

.

City emergency hotline on 011 375 5911

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

Councillor Huggett – by SMS or WhatsApp – 071 785 8068

JMPD call centre hotline number – 080 872 3342

JMPD Control Room – 011 758 9620

JMPD number to report Homeless People camping in the vicinity – 011 490 1538

JMPD number to report Illegal Dumping – 011 490 1684

JMPD number to report Noise Pollution – 011 718 9684

JMPD number to report Illegal Advertising – 011 490 1547

JMPD number to report Illegal Trading – 011 490 1744

JMPD number to report other By-Law issues – 011 490 1684