Popular Pinetown nature reserve slowly deteriorates
The residents told the Highway Mail that the deterioration of the Paradise Valley Nature Reserve is caused mostly by lack of maintenance and budget.
RESIDENTS on Oxford Road where Paradise Valley Nature Reserve is situated, are fed up with the overcrowding at the reserve which always results in chaos in the car park.
They say the reserve used to be regarded as ‘jewel’ in Pinetown and was very well supported by the community.
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“Our road is getting worse every week and the entire reserve is slowly deteriorating due to lack of maintenance and budget,” said resident, Bronwyn Paijmans
Residents said they have reported this matter to the municipality but have not received any response or constructive follow up.
According to residents, every Saturday and Sunday mornings, there is total chaos with the numbers of people visiting the reserve.
“The number of vehicles arriving with visitors increases every weekend. Most of the drivers park across driveways and in marked ‘no parking’ areas and at times are quite aggressive when asked to move. We feel like prisoners in our own homes, it is just unfair,” said another resident, Lilian Mastropaola.
Mastropaola told the Highway Mail there were not enough ablution facilities in the reserve. “Some people hang their wet clothes on our fence and change in front of our gates and that is never a good sight.
“The visitors also throw away litter along the road, something needs to be done to control this chaos. It really getting out of hands,” she said.
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The residents said they have never had a problem or issues with people visiting the reserve, but recently there are just too many people.
They asked the municipality if there is anything that can be done to limit the numbers of church people going to the waterfall as this appears to be increasing every weekend.
They made it clear they were not against any religion but called for authorities to implement order.
“The reserve was mostly used for birding organisations, trails and for family picnics. We just appeal to officials to control the numbers and for visitors to show respect for the residents, this is a private road with an access servitude but nobody takes cognisance of this fact, ” added Paijmans.
Outgoing Pinetown Central CPF sub forum chairperson, Jenni Black said she also fears for the safety of the people who are being baptised, as there were concerns of E.coli pollution in many Durban rivers recently.
Ward 18 councillor, Melanie Brauteseth said they recently conducted an oversight at the reserve after receiving complaints from the residents.
“The infrastructure is deteriorating and we found out that the few staff members available are under pressure and overwhelmed with the amount of visitors. We will look into it and push the City to set aside budget for the reserve,” she said.
The eThekwini Municipality did not provide comment.
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