RIVERSIDE road has once again earned the ire of Umgeni Park residents as prostitution and crime spiked in the area.
Brian Daish, of Greenwood Park CPF, have received a flood of complaints from residents, which have once again prompted authorities to rally together to clear both prostitutes and vagrants from the site.
According to Daish, the area has been deemed as a dangerous and unhygienic area, which has not only prompted cyclists from completely avoiding the relatively new cycling route, but has also been affecting tourism for the bird park.
“Greenwood Park SAPS contently has to respond to complaints from the area, as there have been numerous armed robberies and other criminal activities in the area. School children on outings as well as bird park visitors have been exposed to this. Additionally, millions of rands were spent on the cycle route, and now it is being wasted as residents are too scared to use this facility,” he said.
They hygiene concerns were primarily provoked by four thatch roof toilets across the bird park. “An inspection of the four ablutions on the northern bank on the Umgeni river revealed filthy conditions in the totally dysfunctional toilets,” said Daish.
Not only have the actual toilets been stolen from the site, but according to Daish there are also rumours of the now empty stalls being used by prostitutes to serve their clients – even in broad daylight. He has called for the toilets to be removed, as he believes that renovating the empty shells would ‘a total waste of council money’.
Daish warned that this would not be a once off solution to the problem and that regular attention would be needed to maintain the area.
In addition to Riverside Road, Daish is also urging the parks department to tackle the dumping site on Browns Drift Road. “We noticed the dumping started six months ago. If the current vegetation and rubbish is not cleared people will continue to dump on the site and it will become a health hazard,” said Daish.
