EDITOR – Regarding your recent article entitled Parks works on ‘problem’ trees.
Ya Ya. Shortly before he resigned from the eThekwini Council on 30 June 2013, the then Councillor Warwick Chapman was given an assurance by the City to work with him on tree matters.
The City was to have, on request, pruned limbs and/or removed trees posing a threat and replaced trees where stumps or holes remained.
If the new councillor (irrespective of party affiliation) failed to follow-through on this and other work-in-progress – opting to press “Reset” and getting the ward to start over, once again – she/he has, effectively, failed the electorate, ward and party.
As the party retained this ward and the changeover was obviously not effected during the partying, it is rich for this “new” commitment from the City to be celebrated as some achievement.
Two years later, the City has still not prioritised trees in Ward 33 – because the councillor has not either.
Mahmood
North Beach
RESPONSE:
After Warwick Chapman's resignation in 2013, I sought as far as possible to get follow-through on matters that he had been working on by engaging with him and using his e-mail address and files. There is an element of disruption that is unavoidable when one councillor resigns and another is elected, but we did attempt to mitigate it.
The new undertaking made by Parks was as a result of a change in their staff members and pressure from myself to resolve these issues. Grahame Steele began working at Parks in 2014 and took a different approach in dealing with trees that I believe has been somewhat more effective, although there is still a lot of work to do. I did not press any reset button and have followed through where possible.
I have repeatedly attempted to resolve these matters and have been very vocal in the media and with the municipality in this regard. I have requested a short-term contract be put in place to deal with the backlog that exists with tree pruning and removal, but the department has rejected this. Motions to the council to this effect have also been voted down by the ANC. Unfortunately, legislation prohibits councillors from being able to give instructions to officials or make decisions separate from the Council.
Nicole Graham
Ward councillor: Glenwood and Umbilo
