In a press statement of Tuesday, September 23, Knysna municipal manager Lauren Waring explained council's approach in terms of road maintenance for the 2014/2015 financial year. The press statement referred to the road hierarchy system which was drawn up as well as the budgets allocated to the various wards. The R4,9-million budget was divided into R1,62-million for resealing, R1.3-million for general road maintenance and R1,99-million for gravel roads.
Richard Thorpe, advisor to Knysna Municipality and a Ward 9 committee members, explained as follows: "The municipality could only budget R1.3-million for road repairs for the whole of Greater Knysna and then allocated this to wards based on the number of kilometres [of road] per ward. They then asked councillors and their respective ward Committees to prioritise the roads within the ward so that the Technical Department had an indication on which roads to spend the money before they proceeded with any road repairs. The ward committee members for Ward 9 felt that they needed a list of all roads in the ward, complete with the Technical Department's categorisation, in order to discuss priorities within their communities."
At a special ward committee meeting convened by the Ward 9 councillor was held on Thursday, September 11. The committee members declared unanimously that whilst they had completed the exercise within their own suburbs, they had no mandate from their communities to prioritise across all the suburbs within the ward. Thorpe explained that one reason for this was that it was impossible to match the need for road repairs across all the suburbs within the ward.
"Whilst I know the condition of the roads within Hunters Home, Rexford and Fisherhaven suburbs, how can I compare these with those of the Heads, Hornlee West and Leisure Isle for example. We would need a full site inspection to do that."
He added that the clearly inadequate budget would not only increase the road backlog but exacerbate further the deterioration of the road infrastructure.
"Clearly, this will only lead to further complaints about the increasing number of potholes. All the Ward 9 committee members felt that in these circumstances they were not prepared to take a shared responsibility with the municipality and the potential ensuing criticism regarding unrepaired roads in the ward," he added.
Waring appeals to the public to be patient as it is expected that the council will take a final resolution in terms of its action plan at a special council meeting on Thursday, October 2. For a breakdown of the budget per ward or for further enquiries regarding specific work that will be done in the various wards, the public can contact their ward councillor via 044 302 6300.
A new species. The Knysna Pothole Tree in Clyde Street was identified on Monday, September 29.
ARTICLE: ANOESCHKA VON MECK, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD JOURNALIST
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