Last week the Beacon Bay Ratepayers’ Association (BBRA) submitted a letter to BCMM calling for the removal of garden transfer station signs on Quenera Drive that have led to illegal dumping in the area.
This letter went unanswered and BBRA, in collaboration with the Ward 28 councillor’s office, will be resubmitting a letter directly to the HOD of solid waste and the municipal manager’s office, later this week demanding the signs to be removed and the dumping be attended to.
The garden transfer station was closed in 2021 following civil and government action that saw court orders and compliance orders issued to the municipality that oppose how the facility was run.
This led to criminal charges being brought against the municipality, which are being investigated by the National Prosecuting Authority.
Civil action group, the Centre for Community Rights, said station was treated as a dumping site and internal combustion meant it was continually on fire with smoke impacting the lives of residents in the area.
Following the facility’s closure, the court order called for rehabilitation of the land and the removal of the signs, however neither requirement has been met.
Residents believe the presence of the signs increases dumping in the area because people are inclined to leave refuse bags outside the station or along Quenera Drive when they realise the facility is closed.
BBRA chair Malcolm Symons said the association had made several requests to the municipality to remove the signs.
Ward councillor for the area, Frederick Pohl, said the signs could at the very least be covered by tape to stem the dumping however requests for this to be done have not been met.
Christo Theart from the Centre for Community Rights said they had been in contact with the municipality since 2021 to remove the signs and to appoint an environmental consultant to do an impact assessment of the area, however this has not been done.
Theart said: “The dumping outside the transfer station will continue because there is no will from the municipality’s side to take waste management seriously.
“They do not have money to do things like appoint environmental consultants because they do not prioritise urgent concerns on the municipal budget. The money is spent on things that are not needed.
“We have been asking for years for the municipality to provide us with an integrated waste management plan for instance, and they remain unable to do this.”
Pohl said the community in Beacon Bay did not want the garden transfer station to reopen at any point in the future because of its previous non-compliance.
Pohl said: “There are so many instances such as in Kaysers Beach and Kidds Beach and Roundhill that point to BCM’s inability to run facilities properly.
“None of the existing garden transfer stations comply with the minimum standards and norms set by the department of environmental affairs.
“They don’t have proper controls in place, no record keeping, rubbish is thrown outside demarcated areas and there is no fencing.
“The Beacon Bay transfer station’s fence is bigger that ,000m², which is against regulations and already shows poor planning for the facility on the part of BCM,” Pohl said.
“We have severe and horrific problem in the city with dumping and removing those signs will go towards alleviating this.”
