Councillors and other government officials who are elected to posts seem to think that they work for the government.
In which case they are totally wrong they work for the people who elected them to serve their needs in society.
People should realise that ward councillors work for the ward (people) and need to produce results or get booted.
How do you boot them?
Vote for someone else. I think its time for residents of wards to start demanding of them to do their work and stop sitting around earning fat salaries for no work done in their wards.
They need to be held personally responsible from their own salaries, for claims and maintenance which results from their lack of interest in the state of facilities in their wards.
Roads are in a shocking state with potholes resulting in damage to tyres, wheels and the suspension of motor vehicles. At times potholes remain on roads for three months and longer.
Verges are overgrown and full of trash such as plastic bags and bottles, beer bottles and cans, cardboard boxes, etc.
Some of the sidewalks are so overgrown with grass and have become so narrow that only one person can walk on them.
Branches of trees and bushes result in pedestrians either ducking under or walking around them.
Kerbs and gutters are so filled up with soil and grass and garbage that when we are “blessed” with good rain all the trash and garbage washes into the culverts causing blockages and cannot flow away resulting in flooding.
Branches overhang roads and motor vehicles have to go onto the right hand side of the road to get around and result in a dangerous situation. I believe that by law there needs to be a 3,4 m height clearance on roads.
Maintenance done on Niagara Drive in Waterfall resulted in the sidewalk being chopped up to get to a burst water pipe.
When the repair job had been completed and the concrete pieces of the sidewalk replaced, it was left in a shockingly uneven state.
Branches have been cut down to make provision for the overhead cables and left in brushwood heaps for months. Who is expected to remove them? Who supervises and ensures that the job is completed correctly?
Perhaps these councillors should be forced to look at forming street committees made up of a representative from each street/road who can meet once a month. In this way the community can communicate their problems to the councillor and ensure that their area is maintained and receive regular feedback on problem areas and lack of service.
I reported a major problem regarding the Brackenhill Road entrance to the Watercrest Mall where vehicles are going onto the right hand side of the road against the flow of traffic to get into the Mall Parking, rather than drive around.
The answer given was that the police must do their work and prosecute them.
Well to date nothing has been done and I am waiting for the first accident to happen. Perhaps the councillor should talk to me as rectifying the problem requires a very simple solution.
Peter Smythe
Waterfall
