North Riding property owners desperate about state of roads
Some of the roads in ward 115, Fourways/North Riding, are so bad, say residents, that it is no longer about "driving on the left side of the road", but "driving on what is left of some of the roads".
A stormwater drain in Blandford Rd, North Riding, has been left open and broken for a year.
Missing manhole covers and illegal dumping in the area are also leading to crime.
Ward councillor Susan Mottram says the infamous Blandford Road in North Riding is a case in point.
A section of it is now an "established" dumpsite that residents, developers and businesses trash without consequence every day. There is no intervention by JRA and no policing.
"As a result of council's disinterest in protecting its citizens and environment, despite repeated appeals to the city, nothing has been done for a year. Residents take it upon themselves to clean their own portions of the road," she said.
Blandford Road is now a "stinking, diseased pit which, linked to this, has become a hot spot for escalating serious crime. But the lives of the people who live in and pass through this suburb are very obviously of little consequence to this local government," she said.
Added to Blandford Road's woes are that the pavements that its councillor Susan Mottram has been tirelessly trying to sort this out but to no avail. The hole outside the Methodist Church in Blandford Road was fixed at the beginning of the year, but the workmanship was shoddy," she said.
The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) says it is aware of problems surrounding ward 115 and its depot maintenance teams have "already commenced with the process of dealing with service delivery issues in this area as per our maintenance programme schedule".
JRA spokesman Sam Modiba said the JRA maintenance programme was in line with the City of Joburg's integrated development plan and ward 115 fell within that plan.
"The Mayoral Integrated Service Delivery Programme is bearing results in other regions where this approach has already been implemented.
"This is where all the city's entities work in a collaborated effort to deal with service delivery issues," he said.
In response to road defects in ward 115, Modiba said:
Pikitup and JRA conduct regular cleaning but, because of repeated dumping, the problem is not resolved permanently.
The JRA will engage JMPD to increase law enforcement in this area.
The residents, in conjunction with the ward councillor, requested this road to be closed.
JRA traffic engineers have approved this, on condition that it will be paid for by the residents.
This process was launched on October 1 in Region E, and all the hot spots that were identified in this region were receiving attention, he said.
The Star
Posted at 07:33AM Oct 19, 2012 by Editor in Johannesburg | Comments[4]