Resident Jane Aroo writes:
I found it interesting that DA councillor Siobhan Muller remarked in her reply to the Silverton cul-de-sac that the decisionby the Tshwane planning department against the community, in favour of a prospective business proposition by a private entity, was based on “policy, law and facts” (Councillor hits back after criticism over cul-de-sac, Rekord East, October 6, 2017).
Did Cllr Muller and the municipal planning tribunal also consider the policy, law and facts which support entrenched residential communities, and which local government should off its own bat take into very serious consideration as a matter of course without having to be dragged to the high court?
There are policies and mandates pertaining to local government which ensure that established residential communities have protection against threats to their welfare, and there are laws of various sorts, and in particular including the Constitution, which have been created specifically to ensure that citizens are sheltered from exploitation and abuse.
Cllr Muller’s view that “the rights of all landowners” must be kept in mind, completely misses the point in this case.
The residents in the cul-de-sac case are a long established community. They interact with each other on various levels, have common interests in the protection of their homes, have personal and group contacts of various sorts in Silverton based on their residential status, and have an emotional investment in the spirit of place, whereas the landowning entity confronting them does not present any of those qualifications, and does not live on the land in question.
The intensely controversial decision by the tribunal to approve an access into the cul-de-sac for the benefit of a private, profit orientated entity contained no consideration whatsoever for the welfare of the residential homes which have been established there for decades.
jc/mk
