The ward 118 councillor, Clr Mike Spadino, commended the Cyrildene community, business people of the area and the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department for improvements along Derick Avenue.
Last month, the JMPD spokesperson, Chief Superintendent Waynne Minaar and the Region F Cluster Commander, Sgt Marius Boolsen, led the education and visibility programme along Derrick Avenue.
The JMPD distributed the City of Johannesburg’s bylaws, written in Chinese, to the business people operating along Derrick Avenue.
Clr Spadino said this was to address complaints from the community about how businesses are run along the avenue.
“There was a lot of complacency there. People were illegally dumping vegetables on the corners of the streets. Business people were trading on the pavements, hindering pedestrians from using the pavements, forcing them to put their lives in danger by walking on the road,” he said.
He said in recent visits, he noticed great improvements.
“Now you can walk on the pavements. The place looks clean and there is less smell. I know it is not where most of us want it to be, but there is a great improvement,” he said.
Clr Spadino said residents and business people will benefit from the initiative.
“This will be a win-win situation. There will be a clean environment and with the upgrade of the area, businesses will boom as customers will want to come and buy in a clean environment,” he said.
He said parking is still a problem along Derick Avenue.
“Cars are still parked on the road in such a way that they obstruct the view for other motorists. This is putting other road users in danger. We need to find a way to deal with this problem,” Clr Spadino said.
In a previous EXPRESS edition, business people told the JMPD officers that some of the vehicles parked in front of the shops belong to residents and not the business owners or their customers.
Sgt Boolsen said the EMPD was monitoring the parking situation and has plans to deal with it.
“We have noticed vehicles parked in the same spot for more than three hours in a day. That is why we are talking to the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) to design appropriate parking bays and install parking timers,” he said.
