The Parkview Residents Association, in partnership with the Melville Koppies management committee, cleaned up Carlow Road Bridge.
“We had to wait for City Parks to mow the pavements before we could clean up the overhanging branches and begin with the clearing of the road and pavements of vegetation that shouldn’t be there,” said Theresa Gibbon, communication and marketing officer for the association.
She added that the association has a lot of experience in mobilising the community around issues such as this. “Residents are increasingly aware that it’s no use simply complaining to City authorities that areas look unsightly, and that they have the ability and responsibility to make change happen.”
To obtain donations, the association used their two WhatsApp groups, namely the Parkview Council and Parkview groups to obtain monetary commitments from residents.
The request went out at night and by the morning they had donations from 12 households for 12 workers plus lunch.
READ: Major infrastructure upgrades planned for Rosebank and surrounding areas
Ward 87 councillor Bridget Steer also supported the clean-up by making sure that Pikitup was there the next day to collect about 100 bags of rubbish. “It helps to get involved in your community. It will help improve your neighbourhood as well as ensure a clean and safe environment for the community.”
The Parkview Golf Club provided spades and rakes and one of the residents dropped off lunch for the team.
Wendy Carstens from the Melville Koppies management committee was very willing to help the residents’ associated with the Carlow clean-up as it was an eyesore for both Melville and Parkview residents. The associated reimbursed Melville Koppies for the wages for the day, for the committee’s hard-working, full-time, four-man conservation team, which is funded solely by donations from the public.
“The PRA would like to call on other RAs to do this for problem pavements in their communities – it doesn’t take long to organise – it took about three hours over a week to organise the workers, money, bags, and checking on the guys – most of this is done via SMS/WhatsApp,” concluded Gibbon.
Talk to us by posting on our timeline, Rosebank Killarney Gazette or tweet us @RK_Gazette
