Community solution for Main Street 'eyesore'

PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - After eight years of asking the Bitou Municipality to help, Keep Plett Clean (KPC) has finally taken it upon itself to fix the balustrades, railings and walkway along a 600m stretch of Main Street in Plettenberg Bay.

Ward 2 Councillor Dave Swart commended the organisation and staff of local company IGS for this community-driven project to step in where the municipality is unable to.

Alison Bryant of Keep Plett Clean, a campaign she started more than 10 years ago, was full of praise for IGS whose directors and employees gave their time, expertise and free labour as part of their community service outreach.

"Thank you IGS," said Bryant, "for removing a huge eyesore. Besides that, it's an accident waiting to happen which will then be the fault of the municipality - and they would be held liable."

Bryant said the aim of their campaign is to spruce up Plettenberg Bay, "our town", for visitors and tourists who support the town's biggest economic driver, tourism.

"If our town looks good we will get more visitors, have more people wanting to live here - thus creating more jobs. Our municipality comes with issues as we all know in this day and age. Therefore we need to help them by taking ownership of our surroundings and the environment and just get on with it!

"Keep Plett Clean has done a huge amount of work over the years, providing dustbins, keeping the town litter-free on a daily basis, weeding and bush cutting, even attending to the parks and gardens in the town."

Bryant said every Tuesday, a number of people join in on the Keep Plett Clean community service work – just giving back to the community. She thinks that Plett has a fabulous community and the fact that there are so many people on board with the campaign, proves it.

Dulux, one of the sponsors of Keep Plett Clean, provides paint to spruce up Main Street and walls once a year so that the town looks fresh for the December holidays. The cleaning campaign also relies on the estate agent businesses in town to sponsor the trimming of bushes and trees twice a year.

Keep Plett Clean employs three staff members - whose positions are purely donation-based - and their salaries are sponsored by Beacon Island KwikSpar and Tops. "We are so grateful for whatever donations come our way," said Bryant

For now, the balustrades, railings and walkway on Main Street's sidewalk will no longer be an eyesore, thanks to a community effort.

IGS director Nic Bryant looks on as Wynand Carr and Boni Magwedu measure up a piece of balustrade in Main Street that needs replacing.