A day before the scheduled follow-up meeting between Langebaan shop owners and SBM officials regarding the controversial road construction fiasco, disaster struck again . . . Construction workers laying the curbs apparently blocked the entrance to several shops, cutting them off completely. The shop owners eventually had to phone for assistance to get out of the parking area . . . * Read at the bottom as it happened shortly after publishing this article this afternoon.
The follow-up meeting between besieged business owners along Oostewal Road and officials of the Saldanha Bay Municipality to find solutions for the prolonged road construction work that allegedly bankrupted eleven businesses, are scheduled for 18:00 tomorrow in the Langebaan Town Hall.
The venue had to be changed to fit in all the affected parties, since the library hall where the previous meeting was held could barely accommodate the 80 odd shop owners who rocked up to demand answers, transparency and compensation for their losses.
Tomorrow’s meeting will hopefully shed some light on some of the main issues regarding the practicality of the road design, who is responsible for the delays, as well as the poor planning that caused many businesses to be cut off completely from the main traffic routes. Concern that the road is too narrow and does not make allowances for emergency vehicles is still a serious objection.
The original crisis meeting was organised by Rocky and Judith Breytenbach, owners of Silhouette Marine & Motor Spares and Gypsy Mojo and Silhouette Slimming respectively after they consulted Mayor Marius Koen with their grievances.
Koen and the same group of officials who attended the previous meeting will again be there to give feedback and discuss the recommendations made at the previous meeting. It is understood that a representative of the Consulting Engineering company, Nadeson, will also give a presentation of the project design and that the contractor will be present to answer questions.
The business owners also requested insight in the tender process and the contract stipulations. The SBM’s director of technical services, Gerrit Smith, will allegedly have a copy of these documents made available to the group.
At the previous meeting, several emotional business owners described the horrendous and paralyzing effect that the “poorly planned” construction work had on their businesses – especially those in Ward 6.
Apart from the inconvenience caused by the dust and sand that daily covered their shops and stock, the detours forced traffic away from them so that they seldom saw a customer. Many workers had to be laid off and some businesses suffered a 90% loss of income.
* To add insult to injury and make tempers flair anew, some of the affected businesses were AGAIN completely cut off today when curbs were laid and all access roads were “accidentally?” blocked off.
The owner of Curry Den only discovered after lunch that the reason why none of her regular customers pitched up for their favourite delicacies, was that nobody could access her restaurant or any of the neighbouring businesses. The shop owners allegedly had to phone Ward Councillor Dries Venter for assistance in order to get out of the enclosed parking area in front of their shops.
The distressed owner of Curry Den was almost in tears, asking what she must do with all the specially prepared food that now goes to waste . . . the losses suffered are just too much, over too long a period.
No more entrance/exit: Attached photos taken this afternoon show how the curbs were laid across the entrance to the Curry Den and neighbouring shops, blocking them completely off so that shop owners had to phone for help to get out.
Also read: http://www.weskusontheline.co.za/…/roadworks-bomb-explodes…/
