Having reached a crossroads, Mill Park residents are doing it for themselves, patching and painting dangerously faded intersections around their suburb.
The group had already fixed up 22 at the weekend and is aiming to up the ante going forward as part of its effort to make the precinct, one of the premier residential areas in Nelson Mandela Bay, safer and smarter.
Organiser James Bonner said it had begun with an increasing number of residents raising concerns about the state of the signage around the suburb, motorists not stopping and a couple of motorbike accidents, as a result.
“At a certain point I thought ‘no, we must stop talking and start doing.’ So I contacted another resident and we bought enough paint to fix five intersections,” he said.
“Then other residents started calling asking how they could contribute and soon we had enough money to do a whole lot more.
“In the end, 18 people joined, including from Atlas Security, and we tackled the job on Saturday.
“We worked for about 3½ hours, fixing up stop signs and some middle lines and ended up doing 22 intersections altogether.
“Besides our time, it cost about R9,000 for the paint.”
Bonner said the group understood that it was the responsibility of the municipality to maintain road signage.
“In fact, in the week prior, they did do some painting themselves — but they did just three intersections and then stopped.
“So if we just waited for them, things would go backwards. We are proud of our suburb and don’t want it to deteriorate.”
He said there were more intersections to do in Mill Park and adjacent Linkside as well as problems with potholes, faded and insufficient traffic calming humps, and street lamps that did not work.
In Mill Park alone, there were about 50 broken street lamps.
“So we stopped when we did on Saturday because that was how far our resources stretched at that point, and because we’re not young and our backs were aching.
“But the intention is to continue with the same approach, where we get things done efficiently and at cost.”
Bonner said while he would encourage communities in other Bay suburbs to unite to tackle their own infrastructure ailments where they could, the metro had to play its role.
“This is, of course, one of the reasons we pay rates and taxes.
“But even within this scenario, there is a way that we can add value, and that’s what we’re trying to do in Mill Park.”
Metro spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya failed to respond by the time of publication.
The Herald
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