FOR years, those living and doing business in Brickfield Road, Shelly Beach, near the former Old MacDonald’s Farm, have had to tolerate the unbearable condition of the road.
Numerous calls to the Hibiscus Coast Municipality and the ward three councillor, Elvis Ndovela have, they say, fallen on deaf ears.
On rainy days, negotiating the 900 metre untarred road is almost impossible and an eight year-old girl was injured in an accident on the road last Thursday.
Avesh Anwanth had picked up his daughter, Ronique from school at 2.30pm and was returning home to Brickfield Road. By 4pm Mr Anwanth was still at the bottom of the road. “At around 4.15pm I decided to give it one more try but crashed my vehicle on the side of the road,” said Mr Anwanth.
“My daughter hit the windscreen and was lucky to escape serious injury. This road is an ongoing problem. How much longer must we put up with these conditions?” he asked.
Another resident said that their rates seem to mean nothing to the municipality. “There’s no verge cutting, removal of refuse or repairs to the road,” he said.
An irate Diraj Sukdev said they were fed up and frustrated with the municipality’s lack of service delivery. Last Thursday most residents used a private property entrance to gain access to their homes.
Hibiscus Coast Municipality spokesman Simon Soboyisa said Brickfield Road had initially been prioritised as part of the rehabilitation of gravel roads phase five during the 2012/2013 financial year.
“The plan was to construct a 50m reinforced concrete surface on the steepest section of the road,” he said.
He explained that as the contractor was getting ready to work, a local businessman expressed concern that the 50m section would not be adequate.
“He raised the point that the road is used by trucks on regular basis and suggested that a 200m concrete section would be preferable. He was willing to contribute some materials in order to extend the length of the concrete section. We then requested Ngcolosi Engineers to redesign the concrete section to cater for heavy vehicles,” said Mr Soboyisa.
He added that the new design would add an additional R750 000 to the bill, a sum the municipality did not have available at that time. The road has since been reprioritised for construction as part of the rehabilitation of gravel roads, phase six. The tender for this project is currently under evaluation.
