Over 5 000 residents signed a petition to prevent council from developing the Edenvale Sports Grounds last week.
Petitions were available at various shopping centres, including Karaglen SuperSpar, Glen Curve Spar and Dowerglen Quick Spar.
Jiffy Print donated the 1 000 double-sided petition forms for residents to sign.
Mr Harry Karamichael, from Karaglen Super Spar, agreed to have the petition placed at till points in-store, which resulted in the majority of signatures.
Dowerglen Spar and Glencurve Spar allowed the various sports clubs to place tables at the entrance to the stores for residents to sign the petition.
The Edenvale Indoor Soccer area ensured that clubs had tables, chairs and table cloths at various petition sites.
In addition, the Edenvale SPCA allowed the sports clubs to run their petition at its Christmas fête held at Horwood’s Farm on Saturday.
Clubs which assisted at the various tables included the Imps Baseball Club, the Edenvale Football Club, the Edenvale Stingrays Swimming Club, The Edenvale Indoor Soccer Club, the Edenvale Rugby Club and the Edenvale Sea Scouts.
In the November 19 edition of the NEWS, it was reported that sporting bodies in Edenvale lashed out at council’s plans for a multi-billion Rand development of the Edenvale Sports Grounds and Horwood’s Farm.
The development, which would include a mini Ellis Park type stadium seating 14 000 people, doctor’s offices, training facilities, townhouses and a hotel, was labelled as a travesty for local sports clubs.
In an executive summary of the property, it states that the sports grounds are “a vacant farm land used as a stadium with a municipal valuation of R0-million”.