NETCARE St Augustine’s Hospital management, contractors and eThekwini’s Parks officials were sent back to the drawing board on Tuesday evening as residents gave their proposal to establish a temporary parking lot for hospital staff at Meyrick Bennett Park the thumbs down.
Councillor Mmabatho Tembe had requested the meeting with hospital representatives, the Parks Department and contractors after the hospital indicated it still had plans to use a section of the park for parking, despite having to halt construction of the temporary parking lot in November last year after the community voiced its objection.
Tembe described the proposal by the hospital as a “very contentious issue”, particularly as neither she nor the community had been consulted regarding the plans.
“If this proposal had come to me first, I could have said from the start that it was a bad idea,” she said.
At Tuesday’s meeting, residents did not hold back their anger and expressed their dissatisfaction that there had been no public consultation before contractors moved onto the park and erected fences and marked the area for parking bays.
They said it was an oversight to not include the community in the decision as the park and building on the property had been left in Trust for children and for the community.
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They pointed out that the park was well utilised by children and a local soccer team which uses the ground earmarked for parking, to play on.
Other concerns raised included the potential damage to the roots of trees by vehicles, the state of the ground as a result of the traffic, especially through the rainy season, and the fact that there is no guarantee that the park will be reinstated to its current state once the parking lot is no longer needed.
Garth Kloppenborg of the city’s Parks Department assured residents that the hospital planned on using the space for a temporary period of nine months until construction of the hosptial parkade was complete.
He said he had been reassured by the contractors that the area would only be used by staff cars and that there would be access control by a security guard, adding the agreement was to accommodate 60 cars.
“We are not bulldozing this plan, we want to see if there’s a way to do this, but if the community is not happy, we will have to make another plan,” he said.
Peter Ferraz from contractors, GBK, said the park would be convenient for staff and would reduce pressure on street parking.
“We will repair broken fences as part of the agreement with the City, the park will be reinstated and the guard will mean extra eyes on site,” he said.
When questioned by residents whether there were alternative sites, he said the hospital was currently using a site and shuttling staff to the hospital.
He confirmed there was another potential site, but that the park would be most convenient.
Ending the meeting, Tembe said she felt the contractors, hospital and Parks needed to go back to the drawing board and look more broadly at the alternatives.
“I feel an environmental assessment study should have been done, and community concerns now need to be taken into consideration. I don’t believe the park will be reinstated completely. Steps have been missed in this process and hence we are here this evening. There has been a lot of miscommunication and we now need a way forward,” she said.
Ferraz told residents and Councillor Tembe that a decision would be made on the matter by Friday.
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