THE Hillcrest Ratepayers Association and Conomirra have become redundant.
The Hillcrest Ratepayers Association was founded in 1985 just on 29 years ago and consisted of a small group of people who formed a watch dog brief working with the then Hillcrest Town Board. Since that time, we saw the first robot in Hillcrest installed. This was at the corner of Old Main Road and Hospital Road. Prior to that, a man stood on a barrel in the centre of the roads and directed the traffic. His white gloves were highly visible.
Hillcrest was a village but the next step was to put in a sewage plant. This changed the face of the Village and over the years it has become a small town. Luke Bailes sold off his farm lands and this saw the birth of the Town House Complexes with numbers not ever thought of before in the area.
The Ratepayers then had a more active role to play and as a Committee have had some very steep learning curves. Town Planning Schemes were developed and overlooked by the Association.
Then came the Megacity. There were 12 in the world at the time and this country wanted to develop five new ones. Durban was first divided into four sections, North, South, Central and Outer West. This was when Conomirra was mooted. There was talk of Hillcrest becoming part of Pinetown and we all knew that if we joined in with a town that had an industrial component, the rates would be much higher.
Higher powers took over and although the Mayor of Kloof stated at a Planning Meeting that the Outer West would not become part of Durban, he had little influence in the end.
Then the Big Bang increase in Rates was announced. The increases were given as anything from 10 per cent to 700 per cent increases. This depended on how the individual towns had rated their properties and everyone had a different system. Waterfall would have to had paid the top notch of 700 per cent.The rates being levied were to have been kept in line with that of Durban. No amount of argument about the level of services, compared to Durban were paid any head. We were told that we had the use of the beaches, the museums, libraries and much more. Eventually, after negotiations, Conomirra won through and the average increase was capped at 35 per cent. We were allocated an amount of R1.5m to be paid back to all ratepayers. The only concession was that 2/3 had to be paid to the Wyebank residents. The rest all got a rebate of about R50.
The next big shock was the intention of EnviroServ applied to be allowed to install two incinerators at their waste site at Shongweni. Conomirra was approached to lead the objections to this move. Demonstrations were held and objections were advertised for and in the end we had a record breaking number of 6000 which probably represented about 20 000 people. One petition was handed in at the last minute and this contained 175 signatures. A nurse had taken it upon herself to people in the township areas and also the residential areas in the Outer West and get these signatures. It ended up as ‘no contest’ and EnviroServ abandoned their incineration plans. We had won our first huge battle.
In 2003 the Hillcrest Ratepayer Association had about 275 households on the books as paid up members with an additional 41 Town House complexes. This made the representation a very healthy percentage of Hillcrest. We now have 93 households and one Town House complex.
Conomirra started off with membership of Associations in Shongweni, Summerveld, Assagay, Bothas Hill, Western Rural, Alverstone, Hillcrest, Waterfall, Everton, Kloof, Gillitts which included Winston Park and St Hellier. We now have two paid up members : Hillcrest and Western Rural. Alan Smaldon withdrew from Conomirra taking with him, St Hellier, Gillitts, Winston Park, Kloof, Stockville, Everton, Wyebank and Forest Hills. All in all, there is very little support from the community.
The latest Appeal of a Rezoning Application for rezoning – that of the Farmers Market site was dismissed because Conomirra was considered by the Tribunal as being an Advocacy Group with no direct interest in the Appeal. The 300 original objectors did not participate in the appeal. The cost in legal fees alone came to R100 000 and this has virtually bankrupted Conomirra. As an Association, they will not be in a position to object to any developments because they will be precluded from any Appeal unless the community joins in. Thus – the whole purpose of Ratepayer Associations has now become redundant.
It is with sadness that the committees of both the Hillcrest Ratepayers Association and that of Conomirra, decided at a meeting on 20 November, that both Associations will cease to operate. There are some loose ends to tie up and the official closing down will probably be early in the new year.
The members of the two committees would like to thank all those who have supported the Associations over the years and also those who served on the Committees. Some have left the area, quite a few have passed on but all will be remembered for their enthusiasm and the contributions they have made to the causes there have been over the past few decades.
My personal thanks to all of the current committees as well for their hard work and dedication.
To the members of Council who have contributed to the knowledge and successes that have been achieved and the many others who have helped in more ways than they will ever know – a huge thank you.
It has been fun but the time has come to face reality and recognise that the world has moved on. The legislation is changing and the circumstances of the ratepayers have also changed. The level of crime occupies much of the time and finances that are available to the general public.
A lot more have taken up the causes of the environment.
I am sure that with climate change presenting more of a challenge on a daily basis, more effort on the part of the whole community will be needed as they will have to attend to very basic needs of everyone. Today, the UK is experiences a flooding which in many cases, has exceeded that of that tidal surges and storms of 60 years ago.
