Life or death could lie in a number
On Florida aims to number 5 000 houses in 2015
Having a visible number on your house could be the difference between life and death.
This according to vice chairperson of On Florida, Annette Reed. She speaks from experience after being a police reservist and serving on the Disaster Management Forum of Roodepoort.
Reed says the idea for her new project was born about four years ago when she was a reservist with the Florida Police. She recalls a specific incident when she was on duty and a call came in from a neighbour saying there are terrible screams coming from the house next door. She gave her address and although the police vehicle was within a five-minute distance of the house, it took them half an hour to find it, due to the fact that neither the caller nor her neighbour’s house had an address number displayed.
It was a domestic violence case and Reed says in half an hour the woman could have been killed. This stuck in Reed’s mind and when the subject was raised again recently by various emergency services at the Disaster Management Forum, she decided to take action.
According to Reed the project will aim to have 5 000 houses numbered in 2015. She is planning to approach security companies and other interested businesses to sponsor the number signs for which they will get advertising in return. Due to the fact that it must be affordable, a donation of R25 or more to On Florida will be required. She also plans to involve volunteers such as the Girl Scouts to help with putting up the numbers.
“On Florida’s mission is to make Florida a better place to live in, and this definitely will contribute to that vision,” says Reed.
Vincent Mkhwanazi of the Corporate Geo-Informatics Department (CGI) says homeowners indeed are obligated by law to have a number on their house as per the Johannesburg Street Naming Policy and in terms of section 69 (1) and section 69 (2) of the Local Government Ordinance 17 of 1939.
A street number needs to be displayed for deliveries to the property, emergency services, council services and visitors. Should a number not be displayed, emergency services might not reach a property on time, deliveries might be dropped off at a neighbour, water or electricity could be cut off incorrectly and the homeowner could be fined R500, says Mkhwanazi.
Numbers need to be displayed on the street front from which entrance is gained to the property and numbers must not be smaller than 75mm in height.
