For months, Harmelia Park has been an unkempt eyesore.
The park is situated behind houses on Lenhoff Street and boarders Minuach Road as well as Shelton and Wood avenues.
Over the past year, the NEWS has received numerous complaints of sewage spills and broken infrastructure in and around the park.
At one point, residents surrounding the park were dealing with four to five sewage spills a week.
Ward 92 councillor, Clr Graham Gersbach, has constantly fought to have council attend to the problems.
One of the main issues surrounding the park is council’s failure to properly rehabilitate the area following the numerous sewage spills.
“There are patches where grass is not growing. There is also a need for council to prevent trucks from driving in the park,” said Clr Gersbach.
In addition, the stormwater channel is overgrown with grass and weeds.
“The little grass that there is in the park needs to be cut and the park cleaned,” said Clr Gersbach.
He added that someone from council would also need to inspect the playground equipment to ensure it meets adequate safety standards.
“The vacant property between 2 and 3 Lenhoff Street is totally overgrown and has become a fire hazard,” said Clr Gersbach.
He also highlighted that overgrown trees along Lenhoff Street interfere with lighting in the road at night.
The NEWS contacted the communications and marketing division of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) for comment on the matter.
In reply to an enquiry sent, the NEWS was told the Edenvale Parks Division had already cut the grass in the park and that the playground equipment will be checked.
“The complaint about the street trees will be attended to by Wednesday, January 21,” said the department.
According to the department, the sewer pipe traversing the park has been cleaned and “should not cause any sewer blockages in the near future”.
The department also said the sewerage problem needed to be resolved so that there are no smells resulting from decomposing sewage as a result of ambient heat or high temperatures.
“Once the smell is in the air, there is nothing our Air Quality division can do. The smell will dissipate as a result of wind dispersion and dilution in the atmosphere,” said the department.
