1998 Progress-1999 Objectives Citichat 10 February 1999

CITICHAT 3/99 – 10 Feb 1999


1998 Progress – 1999 Objectives

Enough of moans and groans - let's get back to the serious stuff and it's all looking really promising.

Towards the end of last year I advised that the work that had been done in 1998 in the Inner City Section 59 Committee had all been approved at its last meeting of the year. This year therefore would be the year of implementation of those issues approved by the Committee as well as setting new priorities for '99.At the first meeting of the Section 59 this week we did just that.

Refresher: the priorities for '98 were:

• Cleansing

• Informal Trade, short and medium-term interventions

• Enforcement

• Housing - development of a Social housing policy and a programme to address 'bad buildings'

• The development of a spatial and economic framework

Of all the above the only two that weren't completed were the latter, the development of the spatial and economic frameworks, but, as reported last week, both of these are progressing well and should be in final form towards the middle/end of March. So the February Meeting of the Section 59 had to consider the implementation strategies for all the other issues, which it did Tuesday, and, with minor modifications, the implementation strategies were all approved. What does that entail in practice?

The final accepted 1998 recommendation on cleansing was for the city to pursue an approach of concessioning the waste management in the inner city area and Graeme Reid has now been authorised to take the necessary steps to implement the concession during 1999.

During 1998 a dedicated informal trade by-law enforcement unit and a dedicated municipal by-law court were established and started to make inroads into the chaos on the pavements. During 1999 this will be broadened through the operationalisation of a centralised enforcement unit covering building control, environmental health (which includes noise pollution, becoming a major problem at present), informal trade, planning, traffic and cleansing infringements. Full-scale enforcement is planned to start in March.

The Policy on Social Housing that was approved requires the development of programmes and systems to give full implementation to the policy. This will be done by identifying precincts in the inner city where urban regeneration initiatives will be concentrated and an investigation is being proceeded with into the establishment of a metropolitan housing company.

On informal trading, approval has been given for the establishment of a market company and the development of eight markets in the inner city which will accommodate 6,000 traders. Once the markets have been established, informal trading on pavements will be virtually prohibited throughout the inner city. The markets are planned for Yeoville, where there will be two; Hillbrow on the corner of Claim and Esselen; the MetroMall site at the intersection of Sauer and Bree Streets; the Drill Hall; the Carlton parking garage; old CNA Building corner Rissik and Commissioner Streets and one in Diagonal Street.

The 1999 priorities adopted are;

• Service delivery

• Restructuring waste management

• Enforcement

• Implementation of the bad buildings programme and of the social housing policy

• Establishing the informal trade markets and management structure

• Public Transport

• Projects and programmes arising out of the spatial and economic frameworks

• Communications, Media Liaison and Marketing.

To a large extent the first five priorities relate to the implementation of the work done last year but that is essential if we are going to achieve the benefits that these programmes will provide. The public transport will be an interesting and overdue addition to our programme. This will include the identification of all legal and mostly illegal on-street taxi ranks and an investigation into alternative sites - it will also include an investigation into the so-called 'metered taxi' industry. The Communications and marketing exercise will aim to start changing perceptions and keep everyone informed of progress.

It's great to see a plan coming together - this is make-or-break year as far as I am concerned and I remain positive and optimistic which neither the doom-and-gloom brigade nor the destructive media can dispel.

In this latter regard I have little doubt that our ranking at level 6 by City Briefs (level 1 virtually crime free - level 7 total breakdown of law and order) is due in no small measure to our media. Level 6 puts us in bed with Algiers, Bogota, Brazzaville, Cabinda, Guatemala City, Kabul, Kinshasha, Lae, Lagos, Medellin, Port Harcourt and Port Moresby. Realistically I would have anticipated that we would have deserved a Level 4. But it is the constant sensationalising by sections of the press, the 'slight misreporting' that they have become so adept at, which has done the damage. Sorry, I started by saying no moans and groans……..whatever!