Helderberg
Year 16 • Tuesday 21 August 2012 | Tel. 021 853 0211
Hillcrest Street’s play park will be upgraded with new equipment and furniture with a budget of R20 000.
The play park in Chris Nissen Park is due to get a R30 000 make-over, with the purchase of new play equipment.
PHOTOS: NICOLE MCCAIN
Parks to get royal treatment NICOLE MCCAIN
Helderberg play parks will soon be getting facelifts, at a cost of thousands of rands. This year funding has been allocated for three parks in the Somerset West area. The park in Chris Nissen Park will receive new play equipment, while the Hillcrest Road and Dummer Street parks will be fitted with new play equipment and furniture. But the upgrades won’t come cheap, with more than R100 000 budgeted for these three parks. Ward 84’s Councillor Stuart Pringle says the type of play equipment for the parks has not yet been decided on. “The equipment will only be purchased in September, after an assessment of what equipment is already there, what upgrades need to be done, what the community wants, and how we can fit it into the budget.”
According to Councillor Tandeka Gqada, the City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for community services, park placement is done according to a study commissioned by the City into the planning of social facilities and recreational spaces in Cape Town. The report proposes that 0,4 ha of community parks be provided for every 1 000 residents. Gqada says parks should be within a kilometre, or 20 minutes’ walk, of a given community. She adds that these parks do not necessarily include play equipment. Pringle says that, in the bigger scheme, the money allocated to Chris Nissen park and the Hillcrest Road park is only a small portion of his ward’s R700 000 budget. “So it’s less than 10 percent of the ward allocation. The upgrades will include not only equipment, but greening and making the parks more user friendly. Our community requires more facili-
ties where children in particular can play in safety.” Ward 15’s Councillor Benedicta van Minnen says the R60 000 budget for the park on the corner of Dummer and Aberdeen Streets will be spent on a long-term project involving the creation of a dam to prevent flooding of the Geel Sloot, which runs through the park. She adds that the money has also been allocated for clearing bushes and shrubbery, as well as for establishing a new play park. The Helderberg has more than 60 parks. Last year more than R300 000 was spent on upgrading six parks, in Macassar, Sir Lowry’s Pass and Lwandle. Equipment for two parks in Macassar was installed at a cost of R50 000. A Sir Lowry’s Pass park was fitted with new fencing and play equipment to the tune of R140 000. Lwandle also had R120 000 worth of equipment installed in three of its parks.
A new play park is to be installed on the corner of Dummer and Aberdeen Streets. There is also a long-term plan to build a dam on the Geel Sloot, which runs through the park. Bushes and shrubbery, meanwhile, are set for a trim.