Concerns over proposed Westville voting demarcations

Warren Burne, DA PR councillor for the Westville area, is concerned with the way Westville is proposed to be carved up by the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) for the purposes of the 2016 local government elections.

Westville is split up between seven voting districts (VDs). In addition, the Cowies Hill VD in Burne’s opinion should be regarded as the eighth Westville VD.

For the last two elections (2011 and 2014), those eight VDs have been split between three wards – Ward 18, Ward 24 and Ward 92.

Ward 18 consists of most of Pinetown, Cowies Hill VD, Atholl Heights VD, Avon Senior Primary School VD and Dawncliffe/Westville Athletic Club VD. Ward 24 contains Westville Town Hall VD, the Truro Hall VD and Berea West Senior Primary School VD, and four VDs in Chesterville. The Pitlochry Primary School VD falls within Ward 92, which also contains eight VDs from Clermont and KwaDabeka.

In terms of the latest proposals by the MDB, which were published for comment in July, these eight VDs would be reconfigured as follows:

The Westville Town Hall VD would remain in Ward 24. Truro Hall VD and Berea West Senior Primary School VD would be removed from Ward 24 and added to other VDs in Sherwood, Bonela and Mayville to constitute Ward 30. Dawncliffe/Westville Athletic Club VD would be added to Ward 24. Cowies Hill VD, Atholl Heights VD and Avon Senior Primary School VD would remain in Ward 18. Pitlochry Primary School VD remains within Ward 92, together with seven other VDs, now all in Clermont.

That would leave the eight Westville VDs split between four wards.

“It is also proposed that three of the Central Chesterville VDs be removed from Ward 24 and be replaced by HP Ngwenya Pre-Primary School VD, which covers the southern part of Chesterville and the Umkhumbaan Ridge View Community Hall VD which is to the south-east of the HP Ngwenya Pre-Primary School VD and extends as far as the sports grounds of the University of KZN. The end result would be that Ward 24 would extend from the eastern edge of the ParadiseValley Nature Reserve to the sports fields on the western edge of UKZN,” explained Burne.

He added, “It is difficult to conceive how a ward councillor and municipal officials will be able to administer such an extensive and diverse ward. The end result of the latest proposals,will be that four different ward councillors will serve the different parts of Westville.”

Problems that he foresees with these new proposals are that the proposed delimitation will cause considerable confusion among Westville residents and ratepayers as to who their ward councillor is. There is also likely to be confusion between municipal officials and that is likely to adversely affect service delivery.

“In summary, the proposed groupings of the Westville VDs are, in my view, completely irrational and illogical, and will inevitably have the effect that some parts of the proposed Ward 24 will be overlooked by the ward councillor of Ward 24, whichever part of the ward he or she comes from.

“In my view, the proposed configuration is not in the interests of Westville residents. I would like to find out how many other Westville residents feel the same way and whether it is worth trying to resist the proposed configuration of the various Westville voting districts (VDs) into various wards.”

Concerned residents and voters in Westville are asked to contact Cllr Burne on 083 326 6633 or warrenburnecllr@gmail.com.