The frequent and heavy rains of the past months have really wreaked havoc in our area as far as roads and stormwater drainage are concerned.

While frustrations with the sometimes shocking consequences of severe heavy conditions are understandable, the magnitude of the challenges posed to the municipality also need to be taken note of. One of the factors to be taken into consideration is the fact that untimely flooding in the summer months (November and January) caused serious disruption to the planned maintenance schedule. Large amounts of time and money have had to be spent on remedying the effects of flood damage, instead of being applied to perform urgently needed repairs and maintenance.

Considering that we have in excess of 90 km of dirt/gravel roads in this part of the Overstrand, this is understandably a mammoth task.

Good news is that there has, according to the director of Community Services, Roderick Williams, been approval on the highest level for a team to be allocated to the operations department of Hangklip/Kleinmond with the sole purpose of addressing urgent road and stormwater repairs and maintenance. This need was identified during the past financial year and the decision was made that a dedicated team would be sourced and assigned to the task.

As the new financial year (2014/2015) has now commenced, this prospect is expected to materialise as soon as possible.
As always, the co-operation of the community will be highly appreciated in this endeavour:

If you are aware of or affected by a serious case of a damaged road or inadequate stormwater drainage, please report the details either to the BBRA’s representative for roads and stormwater, or directly to the office of the municipality’s senior operations manager in Kleinmond, Mr Denovan van Rhodie.

This will enable the relevant officials to do efficient and appropriate planning.

Although the expectation of good quality service delivery is not an unreasonable one, a measure of patience and understanding, as well as co-operation from ratepayers and residents would certainly be conducive.