PRABOA says application should not be accepted
PARKHURST – According to Diamond, the applicants also failed to provide adequate minutes from their meeting with police.
Committee member Chris Diamond said the main issue with the application was that it was allegedly not applied for in proper accordance with the law.
“Our view on the proposal is that the residents concerned are entitled to apply to council for the closure and other people are entitled to object. “The law says that it is up to council to make the decision,” said Diamond.
“We have considerable doubts as to whether the closure is worth the monthly spend for residents since it will have a relatively small effect, since the guard at the gate is not allowed to detain cars, demand ID or get people to sign a register… But if people want to spend the money, they are entitled to apply.”
Diamond said he understood why 6th Avenue residents were aggrieved by the application since traffic would be diverted onto their street, and he believed the road was not suitable for the extra traffic.
He explained that the objection from the association was as follows:
Firstly, the application was meant to be made available to the public, but upon Diamond’s request, it was unavailable.
Secondly, the application neglects to mention Parktown North and therefore those residents were not informed correctly.
Thirdly, according to Diamond, the applicants only received 120 signatures out of 212 affected persons, when he believes it is a requirement to get two thirds of residents in agreement.
“There was a miscount from the applicants and council, despite having the figures they did not check them,” he claimed.
Diamond said the traffic management report was also inadequate since, according to him, it said nothing about the traffic to be deflected along 6th Avenue and therefore did not comply with the requirements. He also believed that it was materially misleading with photos from 2013 included, which did not describe the current status of road surfaces.
According to Diamond, the applicants also failed to provide adequate minutes from their meeting with police.
He believed that council had not received adequate information to allow the application.
He concluded that the applicants were entitled to make another application, should this one not be accepted.
