OUR COMMUNITY

NEWS & EVENTS

Construction in Craighall - Sandpark 88kV cable

Background

Demand for electrical power has steadily been increasing in the Sandton CBD and surrounding suburbs, requiring the local electrical network to be strengthened in order to ensure a stable, reliable electrical power supply for these areas into the future

In this regard, Eskom started construction on the 15th of February with the planned Craighall - Sandpark 88kV cable circuit. This cable will be routed up St Andrews Rd towards Sandton during March, April and May 2011.

Read the full report with questions and answers...

Cable Project - Further Update - 31 March 2011

Progress in St Andrews Road is well underway.

During a meeting last Friday, we determined that it will not be possible for the contractor to drill the road crossings as we planned - this is mainly due to the main stormwater line and the main water line running parallel in close vicinity of the route we need to follow. The risk of damaging these services when drilling is just too big to ignore and we received approval from JRA to open trench these road crossings as well, in the same manner we are doing the rest of the road.

We will therefore need to close Carlisle Ave (31 March) and Cawdor Ave (4 April) at St Andrews Rd on the dates mentioned below in order to trench, lay sleeve pipes and close up again. Each road will be closed for maximum two days. A points man will be situated at the top of the road entry to only allow residents of the street entering.

The piece of road from Balmoral Ave to William Nicol will be started on 6 April. This will force us to close Balmoral for all incoming traffic from William Nicol for the period (around 12 days). Only outgoing traffic will be allowed via St Andrews and Balmoral. The Balmoral Ave road crossing will be done in two sections, always allowing traffic in the direction to William Nicol. The Church entrance/exit will therefore also be affected. We will however only close that entrance for the day of trenching. Thereafter the trench will be covered by steel plates which are safe to drive over.

We intend to have this section of works done by latest 20 April, but we might be finished by 15 April if all goes according to plan.

A snapshot taken from our meeting minutes last week:

The following dates were discussed as a guideline to follow the rest of section 6:
1. Road crossing of Carlisle Ave - Thursday & Friday, 31 March - 1 April
2. Road crossing of Cawdor Ave - Monday & Tuesday, 4 - 5 April
3. Road crossing of Balmoral Ave - Wednesday to Friday, 6 - 8 April
4. Rest of trench from Balmoral Ave to William Nicol - Monday to Friday, 11 - 15 April. This includes bedding sand and preparation.

AGM - this is held annually and is an opportunity for residents to share common concerns.
Halloween - our area has become known in the surrounding suburbs for the wonderful community atmosphere created and enjoyed by all. A couple of residents usually get together to facilitate this event by advertising a date and residents who wish to participate decorate their homes and make treats available. The streets are alive with children and adults 'trick or treating'.
Street Braais - For the past 4 years the HGC Committee has organised an event to give residents the opportunity to meet and enjoy our wonderful suburb. Watch out for details on the website.

Our first community "White Elephant Sale" was a success despite the afternoon thunder shower! This event has shown that it has the potential to grow bigger and more regular.

On Monday the 18th of April 30 Face cloths, 24 boys deodorants, 24 girls deodorants, 12 body lotions, 24 body soap, 12 shampoos, 12 conditioners, 24 toothpastes, 12 baby soap bars, 6 baby lotions, 12 baby shampoos, 12 baby and kids toothpastes, 12 baby powders, 24 toothbrushes and two boxes of Easter eggs, were handed over to the Walter Sizulu Pediatric Cardiac Ward.

donations made by the Hurlingham residents

This donation was possible due to the wonderful contribution made by the residence of the Hurlingham suburb.

Now the babies, and the children at the Sunninghill Hospital can be clean and fresh for their open heart surgery and can wake up with a clean and fresh take after their hart and bodies have been fixed.

Thank you to every one who donated items to have made this possible

I look forward to what we can do as a community next!!!

I will make an appearance on the 15th of May at the annual "Bring & Boerie" with flyers about this past donation, and warming the community members up for November.

Please watch this space for further developments or contact Sada at or 079 695 0596 for deliveries or collections or further enquires

Be Prepared ! Receive SMS notifications of planned power supply outages

We urge all residents to register for a free notification service on the site http://www.citypoweralerts.co.za/, in order to receive a SMS message in the event of a planned power outage.

ROAD SAFETY

Please keep speed levels down along our roads. We are trying to create an environment where people can enjoy walking with their children and dogs, riding bikes and jogging. For the safety of your dogs and those walking in the streets, please keep them on leads at all times. Please note that the ESKOM servitude is a designated nature walk, and motorbikes are not allowed in this area.

Some streets in the neighbourhood (Gleneagles, Arbroath, St. Andrews, Stirling, Waterfall and Maxwell MacDonald) are used as a rat-run for motorists travelling from the west towards Sandton in the early morning. This creates traffic congestion and we advise extreme caution during this period.

REZONING

We encourage residents to be vigilant regarding applications to subdivide and rezone properties. A volunteer in the area monitors the press for applications, however all residents should be aware of the regulations. If you see a notice in this regard please contact for more information. to ensure the proposal is in keeping with Council requirements.

Braamfontein Spruit

The problem of vagrants in the Braamfontein Spruit area persists, and constant effort is needed by all concerned if the problem is to be brought under better control.

In brief, the Braamfontein Spruit area is administered by City Parks, who in turn rely on the JMPD to enforce their bye-laws. Various police stations (Randburg, Linden Parkview and Sandton) are responsible for the control of more serious criminal activities, but their effectiveness is limited because suspected law-breakers simply move from the area in which they are being harassed by police from one station, into an area controlled by another police station.

Commenting on the numbers of homeless people living in the Spruit area, in its newsletter of June 2009, the Craighall Residents' Association observed that "the numbers appear to increase substantially every time there is a CBD eviction, with the inevitable increase in environmental degradation. This includes a great deal of human waste, litter and the cutting down of trees for firewood....Raw sewage in a river in an urban area is not acceptable. There are ongoing reported incidents of robbery, assault etc and earlier in 2009 a body was found buried near the river. While some of the homeless people may otherwise be law-abiding, there is no doubt that a criminal element uses the area to hide themselves and stolen goods and deal in drugs. Recreational users have commented on the often hostile and aggressive attitudes of the vagrants". Much of the above still applies, and indeed additional incidents have arisen since then.

As ratepayers we have supported ad hoc initiatives to control vagrancy and criminal activity, such as joint raids by the Randburg Police and various security companies, including our own CSS. These once-off raids are sometimes successful in apprehending known criminals (by fingerprinting), but usually result in those apprehended being released after a short period of detention.

In the longer term your Committee believes that the best solution is to put pressure on City Parks and the JMPD to enforce the bye-laws and thereby to render it unattractive for vagrants to choose to live in the Spruit area.

The proposed action by residents is that they should report to City Parks any breaches of bye-laws which they personally observe, and to obtain a complaint reference number. We request that this reference number be reported to Jasper () for more information. Our Ward Councilor (Councilor Gordon McKay) has promised that he will pursue through Council any complaints not properly followed up by City Parks.

The bye-laws in question are the Public Open Spaces Bye-Laws, published in Provincial Gazette no 179 dated 21 May 2004 under notice no 831 (available at
www.joburg- archive.co.za/bylaws/publicopenspaces_by-laws.pdf ) and which include the following relevant sections:

Activities

No person may within a public open space -

bathe, wade, or swim in or wash him- or herself, an animal or any object, including clothing, in any water body;

make, light or otherwise start a fire except in a facility provided by the Council for that purpose;

camp or reside;

consume, brew, store or sell any alcoholic beverage;

use any sound equipment, including a radio, portable hi-fi or car stereo;

play an active game, except in an area designated for that purpose on a sport playing field or on a golf course; or

shoot a projectile of any nature.

Waste

No person may within a public open space -

deposit, dump or discard any waste, other than in a receptacle provided by the Council for that purpose; or

pollute or deposit any waste or thing in a manner which may detrimentally impact on a water body.

Vehicles

No Person may within a public space

except at times specified and on roads or pathways provided by the Council, drive, draw or propel any vehicle other than a bicycle;

drive, draw or propel a vehicle in excess of five kilometers per hour; or

park a vehicle in a public open space, except in designated area or other area where parking is otherwise permitted by council

Complaints can be made to City Parks by telephone to 011-375-5555, or alternatively by e-mail to http://eservices.joburg.org.za/joburg/eservices/#clkCntrl

We encourage residents to familiarize themselves with the By-Laws and report any areas of concern to the numbers above.

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