Stakeholders help restore Blamey Road to its former glory

AFTER being neglected for several months, Blamey Road in Montclair finally got a much-needed facelift when various stakeholders came out in their numbers to clean-up scattered litter and repaint traffic markings along the road on Wednesday, 12 June.

Durban Solid Waste (DSW) Education together with ward 68 councillor Gavin Hegter, members from eThekwini Parks and Recreation, eThekwini Road and Stormwater, South Durban Basin Area Based Management (SDB ABM), Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), eThekwini Transport Authority and eThekwini Environmental Health, partnered for a day of trash collecting, road sweeping and painting.

Emelda Mkhulisi from DSW highlighted the clean-up campaign was not only about physically putting litter in a trash bag, but also about putting in the work to ensure that the overall maintenance of the road was restored for all road users. “Each department was given a specialised task according to their work criteria on the day, as a combined team effort. We are grateful for the volunteers that came out to assist and I further encourage the community to also do their bit in putting a stop to illegal dumping in Montclair. DSW refuse collectors come to the residential area every week as a public service to avoid such. It is an unpleasant sight and poses a threat to our environment,” said Emelda.

Cllr Gavin said: “This initiative was basically about coming together to restore the area of Montclair back to its former glory, one road at a time. We’re also busy having speed humps installed on various roads in the area, including Bale Avenue, Wood Road, and Roland Chapman Drive. Unfortunately, we have had recent incidents of child pedestrian accidents due to the lack of these traffic measures but we are moving forward to combat this.”

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Yolande Cloke from the department of environmental health was also in attendance in a proactive approach to target and manage all the illegal businesses in the area along the road. “In addition to educating locals about the negative impact of illegal dumping on the environment, my role was also to approach community members running unlicensed residential and illegal businesses, and make efforts to ensure that they comply with the law as well as health regulations. We also had an educational session to assist and inform prospective entrepreneurs, in order to increase the compliance rate of local businesses in the area,” said Yolande.

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