Residents opt to reclaim Baxter Park
Berea and Glenwood community members as well as organisations and businesses came out in their numbers to address the crime and grime affecting Baxter Park at the public meeting this week.
GLENWOOD and Berea residents braved the rain on Tuesday evening to attend a stakeholder meeting at Bakter Park to discuss the dilapidated park’s future.
Organiser of the public meeting, ward councillor Nicole Graham, said the gathering itself was a powerful testament of residents reclaiming their public space. Graham was prompted to call the meeting after receiving numerous complaints from residents concerned about the drug and criminal element that frequent the park, which has become an eyesore in the neighbourhood.
“I think the response was good and shows how desperate people are to get something done at the park. I needed to guage the general consensus amongst the residents and getting the community out here in the park, was a powerful step towards reclaiming it as many of them would not go near it,” she said.
Community members expressed a desire to preserve the park, have it fenced and have limited access for children and people of the community, but Graham warned that this would need council approval.
Captain Rakesh Premid of Umbilo police told residents the park had always been a problem area and crime hotspot. “We are working on it but need the community’s commitment to take ownership of the area,” he said. Premid said there were many vacant spaces around the Umbilo policing area which had become riddled with criminal elements. He spoke of proposals for Baxter Park as well as other problem open spaces which the community needed to support in order to get council approval.
“We will look at a few proposals and are happy that residents and local businesses in the area have committed to cleaning the park or, prepared to contribute in terms of funding or manpower to make it work. Once a strategy is developed with a smaller working group, we plan to take it to other parks and open spaces in the area,” said Graham.
Contact Nicole for more information on 083 616 1936 for more information or email ward33@ethekwini.org
