One of the reasons for the meeting was for residents to meet with their councillor in person and to interact with him.
The meeting was held on January 21 and some of the main concerns raised by residents included service delivery and the lack of bylaw enforcement on certain houses in the street.
Clr Spadino said most of the houses are overcrowded, with up to 20 people living in one house.
According to Clr Spadino, this increases illegal dumping as there are not enough bins for refuse. Overcrowding also leads to noise and the degradation of properties, as no maintenance is done.
The illegal building of rooms, the breeding of rats, inadequate toilet facilities, illegal connections, prostitution and crime were some of the other issues riased by the residents.
“According to residents, the houses in question were reported to a previous councillor to bring to the attention of various council departments. No feedback was received regarding these matters. There were even articles published in the EXPRESS about one of the houses,” said Clr Spadino.
“What the residents want from me is feedback on what has council done, or not done, regarding these houses. I will follow up with council officials regarding these matters. Residents will be providing me with any correspondence they have on these matters. The residents have also requested that I provide feedback every two weeks, which I will do,” he said.
The residents want the councillor to help them investigate the possible closure of one street on the Queen Street side due to speeding cars.
“There will be an entrance for the public use. If this is not possibly, then a speed bump should be built to help in this regard. Another issue was the pothole on Buckingham Road, which has not been fixed by the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) after Joburg Water fixed a leaking pipe. All they did was flatten the area and place gravel on the surface, which has been washed away by rain, causing a pothole,” said Clr Spadino.
The JRA’s spokesperson, Ms Bertha Peters-Scheepers, said they normally use gravel as a temporary solution and do return to fix the area properly.
She said the JRA apologises to the community as it has taken longer than usual to fix the problem.
“Sometimes the work cannot be completed because of rains or moisture. It has been raining for the past few weeks but we will send people out to fix the pothole in the next week,” said Ms PeterScheepers.
