PICS: Maitland City Improvement District at work

The Maitland City Improvement District zone between the M5 Bridge and Koeberg Road continue to rejuvenate themselves with refurbishment and painting of buildings. Some of the property owners still need to join in this spirit. 

The Capita call centre had a large impact on this zone, with further expansion between Beach Road and Green Street and Voortrekker and Coronation Roads (see photographs). 

Cape Cookies between Green and Chapel Streets undertook major refurbishments inside of their factory and are currently painting the front section of their building. 

The properties from 201 Voortrekker Road are earmarked for redevelopment. It will be incorporated with 8 Langham Street which is situated at the rear of 201 Voortrekker Road. 

The Capita call centre

The Capita call centre

The old BMG building on the corner of Voortrekker and Station Roads, is currently being revamped.

The old BMG building on the corner of Voortrekker and Station Roads, is currently being revamped.

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Atlantic Seafoods in Koeberg Service Road also gave their premises a coat of paint.

Atlantic Seafoods in Koeberg Service Road also gave their premises a coat of paint.

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Currently the premises which were the old Fairview Plaza are in the process of being demolished. This is situated at 203 Voortrekker Road.

Currently the premises which were the old Fairview Plaza are in the process of being demolished. This is situated at 203 Voortrekker Road.

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The potted garden at the Cannon Bridge parking received more attention with the planting of water scarce plants.

The potted garden at the Cannon Bridge parking received more attention with the planting of water scarce plants.

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A constant maintenance factor remains repairs or replacement of street signs and poles. The high volume of traffic and large trucks linked to the narrow streets compounds this problem. This is a direct cost to the CID which amounts to an average of R 350.00 per pole and R 380.00 per street sign, excluding man hours spent.

A constant maintenance factor remains repairs or replacement of street signs and poles. The high volume of traffic and large trucks linked to the narrow streets compounds this problem. This is a direct cost to the CID which amounts to an average of R 350.00 per pole and R 380.00 per street sign, excluding man hours spent.

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The Miramonte Street sign was repaired by Mega Metals whose truck caused the damage. The Milner and Cannon Roads street sign was again a direct cost to the CID.

The Miramonte Street sign was repaired by Mega Metals whose truck caused the damage. The Milner and Cannon Roads street sign was again a direct cost to the CID.

Urban Management Trolley Introduced

The Geocentric Urban Management Trolley Project was initiated in 2017. 

The aim of the project is to provide urban cleaning and maintenance teams with a platform to improve their daily tasks, assist with moving of equipment and tools and enable recycling while performing their tasks. 

A few design considerations were introduced into the design of the trolley including 

  • The ability to move heavy loads of litter or recycling from one point to another without effort or potential injury 
  • Create high visibility for the cleaning and maintenance teams 
  • Have quick and easy access to tools and equipment 
  • The ability, even when fully loaded, to easy ascend and descend kerbs and sidewalks 
  • Be able to separate waste as they work to support the recycling initiative 

To achieve some of these design principles, Geocentric looked at simple solutions from other designs, for example, the stair-climbing suitcases used by so many travellers.  By scaling up the design for the urban management trolleys, we could produce a sidewalk and pavement climbing trolley where the urban management worker needs minimum effort to get onto and off pavements to perform their duties.  

(See photos of step 1, 2 and 3 illustrating this concept.) 

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The trolleys were also designed to be pushed from any side with key tools located in the middle so that it is in fact easy to use it for a two-man team operation.  On each side of the trolley a plastic tool box allows storage for small tools. 

Recyclables like tin cans, glass and plastic bottles are collected by the urban management workers throughout the day as they clean the streets and public spaces and at the end of each day they separate the items into baskets whereafter Geocentric recycles the items. 

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This is another way in which we make CID operations more sustainable and environmentally friendly as we prevent a vast amount of waste from simply going to landfills. 

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Geocentric have rolled out these trollies in the Elsies River and Beaconvale City Improvement Districts and plan to roll them out to all the other CIDs under Geocentric management through the course of 2018. 

Cape Town Mayor outlines status quo of water crisis

During a recent speech delivered at the Atlantis Aquifer, Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille thanked Capetonians who had been making efforts to cut their water usage, saying that about half of water users had restricted their daily usage to 87 litres per day.

But added that this was not enough. “We need each and every Capetonian and business on board as a partner on this journey,” she said.

“We are in an unprecedented drought crisis and this phase is critical because if the City and residents don’t do enough together and simultaneously, we will run out of water.”

She said the City was doing everything in its power to ensure additional supply, including finding and hiring the country’s best team of experts who were working 80-hour weeks with the metro to ensure that additional water could be brought ‘online’.

The Atlantis plant was one of several sites for alternative water sources which form part of the ‘Water Resilience Plan’.

The City of Cape Town had recently refurbished many of the boreholes around this West Coast area to increase the production of this plant. She pointed out that these boreholes formed a part of the City’s unique Artificially Recharged Aquifer System and said a lot of work had gone into ensuring an increase in the volume of water from this aquifer system.

Prior this work, the system had been producing around four million litres of water per day. “We have now increased the yield from this aquifer by an additional five million litres per day.”

The water is serving homes and industrial businesses in Atlantis, Mamre and Pella on the outskirts of the West Coast, which is quite a vast area. “So the additional capacity will be welcomed,” the Mayor said.

“This work demonstrates our commitment to addressing this current drought crisis. I repeat my commitment that I will not allow a well-run city to run out of water.”

She added that she had made it clear when the site of a new desalination plant with the V&A Waterfront had been announced: “we have a plan and we will supply water, but we need Team Cape Town to assist us”.

In the meantime, the City of Cape Town announced that Level 6 water restrictions will be implemented from 1 January 2018, which means that households using more than 10,500 litres per month could face fines and penalties. A proposal for a drought charge of between R45 and R2 800, depending on the value of the property, has also been tabled.

Take a look at these shocking images of the Theewaterskloof Dam looking more like a desert than a body of water:

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Maitland CID’s focus on public safety

For the Maitland City Improvement District public safety is a major concern. A large portion of the bi-monthly board meeting is usually devoted on discussing safety reports and advise on strategies to improve the general situation.

However, during general patrols the safety and security team main will not only be busy with the identification of problem areas, persons and activities, it will also engage with the general public to make them aware of possible dangerous situations and assist them with information when needed.

Officers find that their work on stopping and searching suspicious persons is paying off and in the process, they have succeeded in confiscating dangerous weapons and removing housebreaking equipment from the streets. According to a monthly report more than 650 such stop and searches were conducted in September.

In the period from beginning July to September this year, the following incidents were logged:

  • A toy gun was removed from a stroller at midnight;
  • A car that was being driven recklessly, was stopped and the three young occupants had an open bottle of vodka and a dangerous knife with them;
  • On investigation of a report by a scrap yard owner, two men were found with stolen PRASA property, of which one is a well-known criminal;
  • On investigating a report of a break-in the team could assist with recovering two spare wheels, six mag rims and vehicle batteries;
  • Often people are found with drugs; and
  • Theft of a car battery was prevented when the owner of the vehicles called in to report suspicious activities at her car that was parked the street.

CCTV camera surveillance also makes a valuable contribution to curb crime and to follow up incidents like hit-and-run accidents.

On the cleaning side of things, it was reported that the maintenance schedule is often interrupted with other activities requiring immediate response, such as clearing a street of debris after a motor vehicle accident. Attention is also given to the removal of graffiti from bridges and municipal infrastructure. Picking up litter and removing rubble of illegal dumping sites are also major activities. More than 250 incidents of littering were logged during August and September 2017 and 3716 blue bags were used for cleaning that up.

The cleaning team also keep an eye out for damage to road signs, mainly caused by motor vehicle accidents, and other infrastructure. This also include potholes.

Maitland City Improvement District AGM 2017

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The MAITLAND CITY IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NPC will be hosting its Annual General Meeting and all stakeholders are invited to a review of the year’s activities.

Date:                               24 October 2017

Time:                              16:00

Venue:                           Maitland City Improvement District Office, Cnr Sydow & Camp Roads, Maitland

Resolutions presented at the AGM can only be voted on by bona fide members of the Maitland City Improvement District. This membership is available free of charge to all owners of commercial or property within the SRA footprint, but they must be registered before 10 October 2017

Please RSVP by 15 October 2017 for seating and catering arrangements

Click here to download all relevant AGM 2017 documents

For further information on how to register e-mail enquiries@maitcid.co.za or call 083 255 7657

Become a member of the Maitland CID

Membership of the SRA, which is a non-profit company registered under the Companies Act, is open to all the registered property owners who are encouraged to apply for membership so that they may exercise their rights to influence the business of the SRA. Membership cannot be denied to a registered property owner and as a member the property owner is entitled to attend, participate and vote at members meetings of the Company held under the auspices of the Companies Act.

Should a member be unable to attend they may give another individual their proxy to attend and vote on their behalf. Non-members may attend and participate at members’ meetings but cannot vote and as such may thus have limited influence on the SRA’s activities.

Membership application forms can be downloaded from the link below – once complete please send the form back to enquiries@maitcid.co.za

Click below to download the Membership Application Form

Overall city water use still exceeding restriction target

The City of Cape Town is calling on residents to intensify their efforts to save water. Overall usage of drinking water is currently approximately 10% higher than the required savings target to prevent drawing dams down to dangerous levels by the end of summer.

 

The City of Cape Town advises residents that overall water consumption since the imposition of Level 3 restrictions is still 10% above the savings target of 800 million litres per day. In order to protect our water resources, residents have been asked to keep their water consumption over the coming summer months in line with their consumption over winter.

 

“The start of the hot summer months generally carries with it a spike in water use as residents fill up their pools and use more water in their gardens. If we are to meet our targets, residents will need to cut these activities back to winter levels, or intensify their efforts to save in other areas to keep their consumption in line with how much they used during winter. Approximately 70% of water in Cape Town is used by residential customers, and as such these consumers will have the biggest influence on how secure our future water supplies are”Alderman Ernest SonnenbergCity Mayoral Committee Member: Utility Services

 

Residents who would like to save water could consider harvesting rainwater or installing a borehole or water-well provided they register these with the City. This investment will also result in savings for residents in the long-run.

In addition to adhering to restrictions, residents can also employ the following tips in their homes:

 

  • Ensure that washing machines or dishwashers have a full load before running them
  • Rinse dishes and vegetables in a basin of water rather than under a running tap, and reuse the water for pot plants or in the garden
  • Reuse rinse water for the next cycle of washing up
  • Thaw frozen foods in the fridge, at room temperature, in a basin of water, or in a microwave rather than placing them under running water
  • When using taps, don’t let the water run down the drain while waiting for the hot water or for the water to cool. Rather collect the water in a bottle
  • Close the tap when brushing your teeth
  • Plug the sink when shaving rather than rinsing your razor under running water
  • Shower rather than taking a bath – a half-filled bath uses 113 litres of water, while a five-minute shower uses about 56 litres
  • Install a water-saving showerhead, take shorter showers, don’t run the water at full force, and turn off the shower when soaping
  • Reuse bath water in your garden
  • Install a new water-saving toilet
  • Check if your toilet is leaking. Furthermore, residents can place a 2-litre bottle filled with sand into their cistern to reduce the amount of water used with each flush
  • Ensure that gardens do not require large amounts of water to maintain

 

For more information on water restrictions as well as a more exhaustive list of water savings suggestions, residents can visitwww.capetown.gov.za/thinkwater. The City will also be advising consumers of restrictions in an insert in their next municipal invoices. We encourage residents to familiarise themselves with these restrictions and display them prominently in their homes.

 

If residents would like to get clarity on any of the restrictions, they can also view the FAQ document at the link above. If this does not provide an explanation they need they can send an enquiry to water.restrictions@capetown.gov.za. Residents who would like to report contraventions by members of the public can do so by contacting the City’s call centre on 0860 103 089, sending an SMS to 31373, or sending an e-mail to contact.us@capetown.gov.za.

 

Click here to read and download the formal water restriction notice from the City of Cape Town

MAITLAND CITY IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT AGM 2016

agm inviteThe MAITLAND CITY IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NPC will be hosting its Annual General Meeting and all stakeholders are invited to a review of the year’s activities.

Date:                              7 November 2016

Time:                              12:00

Venue:                           Maitland City Improvement District Office, Cnr Sydow & Camp Roads, Maitland

Resolutions presented at the AGM can only be voted on by bona fide members of the Maitland City Improvement District. This membership is available free of charge to all owners of commercial or property within the SRA footprint, but they must be registered before 24 October 2016

 

Please RSVP by 24 October for seating and catering arrangements

Click here to download all relevant AGM 2016 documents

For further information on how to register e-mail enquiries@maitcid.co.za or call 083 255 7657

Give where it will make a difference

The Maitland CID team would like to urge business owners not to give recycled material to homeless people and in the same light, also help to discourage members of the public to give money to beggars. “In both cases, this humble gesture causes more harm than good”, says Gene Lorentz, manager of Geocentric Urban Management.

Gene says that by giving money to people begging, in whatever form, causes them to stay on the street without trying to find jobs and create better lives for themselves. It is easy to collect money or material which they can recycle for money and live of that for a day. The next day they do the same. It is just not sustainable.

He is a great supporter of the Give Responsible campaign, an initiative of the Central City Improvement District [CCID] and the City of Cape Town. The campaign urges the public to rather give their money or donations to NGOs such as shelters of halfway houses that are helping provide people living on the streets with warm beds, hot meals, family reunification services, trauma therapy and the necessary life skills to help them built a new life for themselves. For more information on the Give Responsible Campaign, go to www.giveresponsibly.co.za [](http://www.giveresponsibly.co.za)

Dumping a great cause for concern

Dumping in the Maitland CID remains a big challenge. Two favourite dumping sites that the Maitland CID team has to clear regularly are the corner of Coronation and Melon streets, as well as no. 5 Glamis Close. Various household items are also regularly dumped in Essex and Suffolk streets, although it seems to become less frequent.

Gene Lorentz, CEO of Geocentric urban management, urges businesses not to dump their waste or place their cardboard boxes outside for the vagrants to collect. This adds to the bigger social problems in the area.