Dear Ratepayers,
On behalf of the Riebeek Valley Ratepayers Association (RVRA) Committee, I would like to thank those of you who have registered and paid your subscriptions to become members of the association.
Whilst anyone may visit our website, we are currently working on a member sign-in feature that will ensure that only registered members are able to access the Minutes of the Committee’s monthly meetings, as well as submit suggestions, complaints and opinions regarding the work that we do, by using a feedback form on our website. In addition, members are able to submit any civic concerns that they would like the Committee to address with the Swartland Municipality.
We have listened to our members’ request for quick and easy access to the most frequently-used and relevant official municipal documentation and information. You can access up-to-date pertinent documentation on our website — click on the Resources tab, and then on Documentation.
This library includes useful documentation regarding planning and building regulations, as well as the latest municipal by-laws that apply to issues of nuisance most commonly raised by our members e.g. disturbance of the peace, litter, unkept pavements, traffic violations, and with whom and how to address these.
AN IMPORTANT NOTICE
We recently loaded the latest draft of the 2023 Integrated Development Plan for the Swartland (IDP), an important municipal strategic planning document, on to our website. The document is a five-year plan which all local governments are required to compile to determine the social and economic development needs of the entire area within a municipality. The IDP provides the overall framework for land use management, infrastructure development, and protection of the environment. It is critically important that ratepayers become familiar with the Municipality’s plan for our Valley and submit your commentary in writing on or before Friday, 28 April 2023. Please email us at info@rvra.co.za to communicate any queries that you may have regarding this process, and we will do our best to assist you.
RECENT RVRA COMMITTEE ACTIVITY
- Roads and Traffic
We are aware of the rapid escalation in traffic violations throughout the Valley. In short, attempts by individuals over the years to successfully address the numerous issues have largely failed. The RVRA Committee therefore proposes that we collect information regarding this wide-spread problem and make representation to the relevant traffic and roads officials on behalf of our rate-paying members.
Towards the end of April, we will load a simplistic street map of each town on to our website for our members to access. If you are experiencing frequent/persistent incidents of road misuse, please highlight the street in which you live and provide details of the complaint in the comments section on the map, by the end of May. If you have video footage of the described violations, please attach a link to this on the form. The RVRA will then categorise the common complaints from both towns and will address these with the responsible officials.
In the interim, one of your Committee members, Basil Friedlander, has arranged for roads and traffic officials to visit the Valley to conduct an assessment of some of the critical hot-spot areas and common problems. Basil has also been instrumental in getting the Municipality to start repairing the broken road gutters and pavement edges in Riebeek West, a process that will be extended to Riebeek Kasteel in the coming months.
- Refuse and Recycling
For those of you who have queried the disappearance of the green recycling bins outside the town hall in Riebeek West: Apparently, the Municipality is awaiting an insurance claim payout to replace the bins that were set alight a few months ago. We will continue to apply pressure on the Municipality to expedite the bins replacement.
In the interim, there are recycling bins on the square in Riebeek Kasteel. There is also a recycling container situated on the open parking lot opposite the ACVV’s Deo Gloria residences. In Riebeek West, you can drop off your recycling behind the Engen garage, or at the recycling facility at the truly immaculately maintained refuse dump in West.
- Building and Development
For many years, concerned Valley residents have challenged the Municipality’s apparent appetite for the type of development that threatens to suburbanise our rural small-town lifestyle. Whilst there have been successes in stopping projects or reducing the scale of inappropriate development, these have been few and far between.
Last year a major breakthrough was achieved when the Municipality agreed to the proposal by RVRA Committee member, Henk Bruwer, that he and Chris Murphy from Cape Heritage, identify abodes/buildings of heritage value and significance in the Swartland towns. This is the first inventory and formal acknowledgement of our region’s heritage value.
The RVRA would like to build on this project and together with the Municipality, draft a set of building guidelines to ensure that all future developments/renovations sympathise with our historic and rural footprint. This type of collaboration has had very successful outcomes in other small towns e.g. Stanford, McGregor, Greyton. We are currently looking at what type of building regulations these towns have agreed with their Municipalities and how the application of their building guidelines works in practice. We will shortly invite the decision-makers from the Municipality’s planning department to an ideas-sharing visit the Valley, which will include a quick ‘tour’ of examples of the good, the bad and the OOPS! Thereafter, we will need to solicit expert input from architects etc.
As a closing note: Please encourage non-member ratepayers to visit our website (https://rvra.co.za) and join the RVRA — The more members we have, the greater the influence we have on how our rates are spent.
Best wishes,
Jennifer Kannerman
Chairperson: Riebeek Valley Ratepayers Association