In case you missed it, read from the beginning of the series:
Bluff News from the 1950s – PART 1
Bluff News from the 1950s – PART 2
Tunnel under the bay:
HARD on the heels of Bluff councillor Spanier Marson’s request for the construction of a bridge across the entrance of the bay to the Bluff, came a new request: to construct a tunnel under the bay to reach the Bluff so as to alleviate traffic congestion on South Coast Road.
A report in the Mercury dated 2 December 1955 noted that the city engineer, Mr Kinmont, had been asked to investigate the issue. The council’s works committee had agreed that in addition to the request for a bridge, the tunnel proposal should be considered as there was need for another outlet to the south of the city. With the onset of municipal elections in 1956, the tunnel idea, like that of the bridge over the bay, sank out of sight.
Opening of Bluff headlands view site:
FROM December 1955 until late in September 1956, news and speculation about the re-opening of the Bluff headlands view site to the public featured regularly in press reports.
With the outbreak of the war in 1939, the area was closed to the public for security reasons. It was – and still is – a favourite showplace for visitors to enjoy unrivalled views of the beachfront, city, harbour and beyond. Then-mayor Vernon Essery had raised the possibility of the site being re-opened to the public with then-minister of defence, FC Erasmus. In typical bureaucratic fashion, a committee was appointed to investigate the prospect.
In February 1956, minister Erasmus indicated his approval of the re-opening subject to whatever conditions the department of lands specified.
According to the MP for Umlazi, Norman Eaton, Marine Drive would be extended to a point some 300 yards short of the tip of the Bluff headland, at which point there would be a car park.
A month later, further conditions were disclosed by mayor Essery. These included that the city would have a 99-year lease on the three-mile extension of Marine Drivve into the headland area in which dwellings and residences would be prohibited. Once again it was stated that the re-opening was imminent.
In March 1956, Bluff councillor Lionel Richardson of the council’s finance committee stated that £8,000 would be spent on fencing, tarring the extended three miles of Marine Drive, and the intended car park along with installing stormwater drains.
An election and several other issues (which will be discussed in subsequent articles) sidelined the opening of the view site until finally at the end of September 1956, public access was restored.
For security reasons, the view site was closed to the public after 1973.
There was another side to the access and ownership of the Bluff headland which surfaced in the Sunday Tribune of 4 March 1956. Councillor Leighton Black argued that the re-opening of the view site was “just a sop by the minister. The city council must insist on the surrender of the whole [headland] area and nothing less”. Cllr Black claimed that the headland area no longer served any military purpose. A gunnery officer in the war, Cllr Black argued that the gun emplacements on the Bluff headland were World War I vintage and belonged in a museum. In modern warfare, he said, coastal artillery was “an anachronism”.
Scanned dated 26 October 1956 – newspaper source not stated.
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