Glenwood community invited to meeting about fibre laying plans

LOCAL fibre optic company, Lightstruck will meet with Glenwood residents this weekend to pave a way forward for a move that will see them installing fibre optic cables in the area from January 2021.

Already, residents of Carrington Heights have been up in arms after company, City Late (Pty) Ltd., began its installation of fibre optic cable infrastructure throughout the area.

Resident Jeff Robinson, who lives in Mountain Rise Road, said the pavement in front of his two properties had been left in a terrible state after the company started digging up the pavement in October, and has yet to re-tar the area.

Robinson said as far as he was aware, there had been no scoping process involving residents.

“Indeed, we were not given any notification that such work was to be undertaken. On a Sunday morning at 8am we were treated to the roar of an angle grinder cutting the pavement just outside our property. The tearing up of the sidewalks has been carried out on both sides of the street meaning pedestrians were forced to walk in a heavily trafficked road, including hundreds of Carrington Heights Primary School learners,” he said.

Robinson also said, legally, a wayleave must have been granted for such work to be undertaken, and although he had requested sight of this, this was denied.

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He said since the trenching was undertaken, there had been damage to water pipes which had affected the area’s water supply on two occasions.

A leak outside his house has also been left unattended to. He said rather than completing one road at a time, work had been started on numerous roads without finishing up, and had continued onto adjoining streets, now up to Oliver Lea Drive in Umbilo.

Robinson said he had contacted the City Integrity and Investigations Unit at eThekwini Municipality regarding the matter, and a Siboniso Gumbi had contacted him to inform him that the situation was being investigated.

In correspondence with Robinson about the development, Lebo Setuke, City Late site supervisor, said the work was incomplete at this point.

He said City Late is a privately owned entity in possession of an approved wayleave signed by the Municipal Clerks of Works to build fibre infrastructure in Carrington Heights.

Setuke said the ward councillor and local businesses were informed, and attended the kickoff meeting conducted in Mountain Rise Road on 17 September, and a notice was sent to the community via WhatsApp by community executive members.

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However, Lynette Read from Yutiliti, a Lightstruck owned internet service provider, said the company was responsible for the laying of cables in the area, hence the meeting taking place this Saturday, 5 December at Berea Bowling Club, Ferguson Road, Glenwood at 2pm.

Commenting on the development, Read said everything was in place to start on the ground on 15 January, the meeting would be held to inform residents of the plans.

“Everything is ready to go! We started the process during lockdown, and drove around to map out the area so we could be ready to start when the wayleave came through. We now have an approved wayleave from the municipality, and will start in the new year. We have a six month contract, however this is a large area, and it could take longer,” she said.

Read said the process had various layers, and this would be explained to residents at the meeting on Saturday.

She said if they found there was interest in other areas, they would expand their coverage.

Heather Roos, chairperson of the Umbilo CPF organised the meeting, and encouraged people to attend.
Contact Lynette with any queries at Lynette.read@yutiliti.co.za.

Berea Mail contacted eThekwini Municipality for clarity on the Carrington Heights approval, however no response was received at time of going to print.

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