Thus, no capital expenditure (Capex) is currently available to surface any gravel road in agricultural holding areas. The City’s reasoning behind this is that people living on small holdings want and enjoy the ‘farm’ feeling, thus no surfacing of any roads there.
But, this decision has caused health concerns for a resident of Glen Austin, Magda de Wet, who lives on what she describes as a very dusty Hampton Road. De Wet said, “I am concerned about the dust that comes off this road while my daughter and other children wait for school transport, I have been diagnosed with a chest infection because of the dust.”
She explained that since 2010, she and other residents have tried to get the road tarred. The problem is made worse by taxis and other vehicles that speed on Hampton Road leaving behind a cloud of dust.
“We can’t even put up laundry without it getting [covered] in dust. We breathe dirty air, it’s like living in a dusty bowl,” said De Wet.
Glen Austin High vice principal, Dirk van Niekerk, confirmed that some parents and pupils have raised concerns to the school about the dust. “We have received many complaints about the dusty road, the principal and I also live near the school, so we work and live with the dust. It’s terrible. It is such a busy road, it should be tarred.”
JRA spokesperson Bertha Peters-Scheepers explained that the concerns raised from certain members of the community were indeed valid, however, the agency is cautious to merely upgrade roads to asphalt surface in agricultural holdings as once upgraded, the agricultural atmosphere would be lost and this would pave the way for further development. Speaking about Hampton Road, she said the road should be motivated through the Integrated Development Planning (IDP) process which enables each community to put forward its plans to be placed on Capex Investment Management System (CIMS) to be considered for approval by council.
“However, it is not a guarantee that the application will be accepted as there are many roads that undergo this process. We will know about the outcome of the application in December 2015 or next in February 2016.”
As horses are often stabled in agricultural holding areas, the surfacing of these roads often damage their hooves. Therefore, the city has made available funding to maintain and re-gravel the roads in all agricultural holding areas, but they will remain gravel roads and will not be tarred.
The Regional Operations Depot has developed a maintenance schedule for all these roads, and they would be able to provide this to each person living or using these roads. The agency has bought new graders and rollers for this reason, but the roads will only be surfaced when development is approved for these areas, said Scheepers.
Tell us on the Midrand Reporter Facebook page what you think about the city’s decision not to tar gravel roads in agricultural holdings. If you live in such areas, how is this affecting you?
