A RESIDENT living in Pinewood Gardens Road, Umbilo, is urging the municipality to act on clearing up and maintaining an overgrown plot of land in the road.
According to Brian Keppler, he feels the municipality has forgotten about this area, and pleas to cut the overgrowth have fallen on deaf ears.
“The weeds in our road grow higher than I am, and we are forced to maintain our own verges as they never get attended to. The property has been overgrown for years, and despite requests to cut back the bush on the land, nothing has been done,” he said.
Keppler said a resident living across the road from the property had taken to cutting back the overgrowth which grows over almost half of the road, and he said he cannot live like this any longer.
“It is a matter of our security as well as the fact that it is an eyesore. We have a lot of petty crime in our road, and criminals use the overgrown property as a getaway route. There are pathways which have been made through the bush where they run through to get away from the area,” he said.
Keppler said when robbers steal clothes from properties in the area, they dump the unwanted items of clothing on the outside of the high overgrowth, and that people have also started using the land as an illegal dumping site. He said there is also an issue of flies as a result of the overgrown property.
Keppler also pointed out a large bag of bottles from a nearby shebeen which was dumped on the side of the road adjacent to the property two years ago. Despite requests to have it removed, nothing has been done.
“There are also people living in the bush, as at night you can see the smoke from the fires burning inside it. I have lived in my home for 25 years and I have had enough, something needs to be done to clear this up, it is disgusting. I have just given up on the municipality,” he said.
Ward councillor Mmabatho Tembe said she had contacted the municipality to have this property attended to, and the Parks department committed to clearing the land.
