Florin Road Park a hot mess for residents

Residents in Struben’s Valley next to Florin Road Park are at their wits ends with vagrant squatters that loiter and litter in the park.

Brian Danney, who lives in the nearby complex, says the problem has been going on for eight years now and the behaviour is certainly getting worse.

“The park is between a shopping centre and our complex and people will go buy alcohol at the bottle store and sit and get drunk in the park. They defecate and urinate in the park and use it as their own toilet. It is disgusting and getting out of hand. Just the other day I had to chase two vagrant squatters out of the park.”

A frustrated Denney says he has approached the local Community Policing Forum (CPF) and Ward 97 councillor Jaco Engelbrecht about shutting the park down.

Honeydew Police spokesperson, Warrant Officer Karen Jacobs said police vans were ordered to increase visibility in the area and that regular raids would be conducted to keep the park free of the illegal activity.

Danney adds that the park has been the focal point for illegal activity, including drug dealing.

“We have seen people selling drugs there and when the police stop patrolling, they come back.”