For August Monthly Update

1 November 2008

Dear BVRA members

The end of the year is just 2 months away and we will be setting a date for the annual BV “street” party at our Committee meeting early next week, and notification of the date will follow soon. We plan to follow last year’s format; if you are new to the area, watch this space!

While Halloween is fresh in your minds, please let me have any suggestions for next year’s notification (apologies to those not on e-mail, I didn’t get round to organizing a hard-copy mail-drop). A couple of residents asked if my suggested times of 5.30-7pm could be shifted a bit later; what are your thoughts? It would be great to hear from house-bound “hosts” as well as trick-or-treaters. Personally, I was impressed with the beautiful costumes & good manners of the trick-or-treaters who came to our gate, and I hope everyone else had a similarly positive experience.

As always, I am indebted to Joan for the Security report & feedback on the River Project, which she e- mailed to me at around 1am this morning. Unfortunately my own domestic commitments prevented me from finalizing my side of this update until now.

1. CRIME/SECURITY What will you do if you are a victim of crime? Do you have Joan’s phone number stored in your phone/written in your personal phonebook? If you cannot reach Joan by phone within a reasonable amount of time &/or you get through to her voice mail, please e-mail the details of your crime event to [email protected]. This will ensure that somebody appropriate receives it even if Joan is away for a weekend or a day or 2.

1.1 Crime in Bishopscourt Village: Two incidents in October: a) The first incident was reported to residents in a previous e-mail, viz. the foiled attempted house break-in/car theft in Hildalan Road on 23rd October. Four suspects fired on Mavume when he disturbed them – to date no arrests. Mavume is having trauma counseling and was given a special bonus of R200.00 for foiling the suspects. Following this incident, ADT have provided an extra officer for most night shifts and on some day shifts. SAPS have also been patrolling BV more frequently. b) A visitor’s VW Jetta was hijacked on 31st October in Princess Avenue at about 17h00 when she stopped to drop off her child and was confronted by two black men, one armed with a gun. Her handbag and car keys were stolen and the men drove off in her car. The resident pushed her panic button and ADT responded in 2 minutes and SAPS in five – excellent response times. Joan reports that she witnessed a dark coloured closed cab bakkie stop suddenly at the Upper Noreen Avenue end of Princess Avenue at about 17h00 and saw two very well dressed black men jump out the vehicle and walk very determinedly up Princess Avenue, and these must have been the hijackers. c) We received an unconfirmed report of theft of copper pipes from the empty property in the upper section of Colenso Road; and on 4th October an intruder (later identified as Bart from the Tokai baboon troop) was seen walking down Princess Avenue, before visiting #32 Upper Noreen and then crossed the river into Fernwood and went up a tree!

1.2 Crime in Claremont in general & neighbouring areas: Isolated serious incidents and a number of house breakings; SAPS are once again appealing to residents to ensure windows and doors are closed and locked and that alarms are activated. Also do not leave laptops or valuable articles near windows or glass doors. Leave nothing visible in your vehicles.

1.3 Crime alerts: a) Someone who was waiting in a queue to pay was asked by a labourer for two R50 notes in exchange for a R100 and obliged – the note was found to have red dye on it and was obviously stolen. b) Two well-dressed black men are operating in a very smooth manner at Cavendish Square -one tall and slim, the other average height. After leaving a shop a Rondebosch resident discovered her mobile was missing. The shop's CCTV coverage showed the men entering the shop together. One hovered around, the other carefully placed a folded newspaper on the counter over the cellphone right next to where she was standing, slipped his hand underneath the newspaper and held it there while his accomplice left the shop. He then removed the phone, put it in his pocket and drifted out of the shop while apparently taking a call on his mobile.

1.4 SAPS Claremont: At present Supt Wienand is the Acting Station Commissioner and Supt Botha is the Claremont Cluster Commander

1.5 Residents must please keep verges clear to eliminate places where perpetrators can hide and to prevent any hazard to traffic, especially at intersections. Any vegetation on the verges (if not kept under control by the resident) can be removed/pruned by Council or a Council appointed person and the BVRA is pursuing this; vegetation which is on the owners property and projects into the road, must be pruned back by the resident.

1.6 Our thanks to Elize Braye for providing coffee and sandwiches to our bicycle officers in September and to the Jouberts for doing the same in October.

2. RIVER PROJECT: 2.1 The reconstruction of the westerly steps by an EPWP team from TMNP* is currently underway and should be completed by the end of the first week in November. This is being funded by a Ward 62 budget allocation of R20 000 and by the Roland & Leta Hill Trust. 2.2 The river area is looking particularly good and is well worth a visit. Matthews and Francis have had to return to Kimberley for a funeral and should be back at work next week. 2.3 The river area has been very popular for kiddies parties this past month and quite a few will be taking place in November. The influx of cars & noise associated with these events are a source of irritation to the neighbouring Upper Noreen residents and every effort is being made to prevent their being inconvenienced by inconsiderate parking. Donations received from these events is an important source of income for the project, and it will be a pity if things get out of hand and we have to put a stop to the current system of booking the area for parties. Please help spread the word and ask visitors to be more considerate when parking & visiting the area. 2.4 Our resident African Black ducks have had 7 babies which must be nearly 3 weeks old by now. They are very shy and are not seen often which is good as just maybe this brood will survive. *Extended Public Works Programme team from Table Mountain National Park

3. TRAFFIC ISSUES 3.1 You might have noticed that Council replaced the Upp Bishopscourt Rd street name sign on the corner pavement of the M3 at the entrance to BV; let’s hope that it stays there for good! 3.2 Tim de Villiers, Senior Traffic Engineer responded to our request for a raised intersection at the Maclear/Upp Noreen/Salisbury Ave intersection: “In terms of the City’s policy on traffic safety …. consideration for traffic calming is given preference where there are high concentrations of vulnerable road users exiting directly onto a public road from a public facility, such as learners at a primary school, developed play parks or where the potential for vehicle / pedestrian conflict may be high. There are no public facilities of this nature on Maclear Road, Upper Noreen or Salisbury Avenue. By nature of the road network, and from past site assessments of the area, ……. we do not believe that circumstances exist to warrant the implementation of traffic calming.” 3.3 Our request for the implementation of speed control measures on the M3 at the Upp Bishopscourt Rd/Strubens Rd junction has also been turned down; once again a well-considered response was received. It was interesting to learn that the Traffic Dept receive 50-60 applications for speed cameras per month! The bottom line is that the stats (accidents & speed limit contraventions) don’t justify a camera at this intersection. We will be debating this at our meeting next week – maybe not all incidents get reported and we need to make sure that they do. What are your thoughts? Any ideas or suggestions? Please let us have them.

4. COMMITTEE MATTERS Our treasurer, Michael Eidne, has put his house on the market & will be moving out of BV, so we have taken the liberty of co-opting Sue Brownlee to take over from him. Sue has recently retired from corporate life and had indicated a willingness to get involved when she had more time on her hands. Michael has promised to ensure a smooth handover, and we hope there will be no objection to the “unilateral” way in which we have handled this. Jerrold’s letter

5. WARD 62 MATTERS Last month’s Ward 62 meeting was a combined meeting of all 4 wards in our Sub-Council (Protea Sub-Council, or Sub-Council 20) which is headed by Councillor Owen Kinahan. The focus of the meeting was primarily on Council’s 5-year Integrated Development Plan, and we were requested to submit budget “wish lists’ for the 2009-2010 financial year. BVRA’s submission was as follows: (i) R20 000 - R30 000 for cutting back vegetation (excl trees - see 5.2) on residents' verges in Bishopscourt Village where this encroaches onto roads and/or obscures traffic & road signs at intersections. (ii) R50 000 for a maintenance plan for and management of trees on verges of properties in BV, particularly in Princess Ave and Upp Bishopscourt Rd. (iii) R20 000 (this figure is a guestimate) for lowering a section of the kerb on Upper Noreen Ave to facilitate parking for visitors to the Liesbeek garden. We were also asked to think about Disaster proposals for the City of Cape Town; what do you see as being potential disaster threats and what proposals do you have for forestalling them? Any input would be welcome.

6. VOTER REGISTRATION: Residents are advised to check that they are registered voters and that they are registered in the correct area – all Bishopscourt Village residents fall in Ward 62.

7. BVRA NOTICE BOARD There were no new notices posted this month. Please note that residents are requested to post their own notices by visiting the Noticeboard section on www.bvra.org.za to advertise domestic employment issues or lost & found items. The template prompts you to include your contact details which prevents replies inappropriately being received by [email protected]!! BVRA members are also encouraged to advertise your business-from-home enterprise – do you have a guest room to let, do you offer beauty treatments, physiotherapy, home bakes/home-cooked meals, are you a hairdresser, tax accountant/consultant, music teacher, computer boffin? Advertising is free and viewing is limited to members on our mailing list. Would you like to advertise but have concerns about the way it’s done? This is your page – help us make it work for you!! Send us suggestions/comments/complaints to the e-mail address above.

Kind regards

Linda Miszczak Secretary: BVRA 28 Upp Angelina Ave tel 021 671 6692 fax 086 671 3897

PROUD SPONSORS OF THE BISHOPSCOURT VILLAGE PROJECT - SIMON RAAB & FORD KING OF GREEFF PROPERTIES - [email protected] and [email protected]