Margate welcomes international town planners
High-tech dynamics of town planning were discussed.
DELEGATES from around the world attended the 52nd International Society of City and Regional Planners’ (ISOCARP) technical workshop at Desroches Hotel in Margate on Monday this week.
This year’s congress was themed ‘Cities we have vs cities we need’.
The main congress was held in Durban.
Delegates from India, Thailand, Kenya and England were among those who took part in technical discussions in Margate.
Areas covered by the workshop included:
* Alamein Avenue Precinct in Uvongo which recently came under scrutiny, with residents raising concerns about high crime rates, vehicle traffic congestion and the dilapidation of road infrastructure.
* Masinenge informal dwellings, currently under construction as various RDP houses are yet to be completed.
* Margate Airport Master Plan, which town planners described as facing striking economic growth.
* Oatlands Landfill Site, which receives approximately 35 000 tons of municipal solid waste per year.
Delegates were taken on tour to these sites.
During the tour, Ray Nkonyeni Municipality local economic development head of department, Siya Zama, said Uvongo precinct faced a major issue of industrial businesses within a residential area, as poor spatial and visual quality of street scope caused conflicts between vehicle and pedestrian movement.
Margate Airport manager, Yolanda van Rensburg, said the airport was currently facing challenges such as were faced by aviation in general: high air fares and lack of infrastructure to accommodate bigger aircraft.
In a breakaway session, delegates were able to give their inputs to our local town planners on how they could integrate strategies to combat the challenges currently faced by places mentioned above.
Ugu South Coast Tourism CEO, Justin Mackrory talked about the seven Blue Flag beaches, 11 magnificent golf courses, the whale decks and world-class mountain biking trails, just to name a few.
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