Leslie van Minnen, Fish Hoek
Over an extended period of time, I have noted letters of complaint published in your newspaper as well as the People’s Post regarding the general state of Fish Hoek Main Road and the surrounding areas.
This issue is also repeatedly placed on the agenda of Sub-council 19 meetings.
More often than not, law enforcement/traffic officers are noted issuing parking tickets and walking around the beach parking area looking to issue fines to unlicensed vehicles.
Please understand that these matters should and must be attended to. Breaking the law is not acceptable.
This brings me to the lawlessness of the taxis making use of the Fish Hoek taxi rank.
It is not unusual to see taxis wanting to turn off the Main Road in the direction of OK Furnishers simply crossing the solid white line in the vicinity of the fish shop and speeding down the wrong side of Main Road in the face of oncoming traffic.
They obviously are not prepared to first reach this road before making their turn.
On numerous occasions when using the one-way road from the Caltex garage towards the station, I have had to take evasive action due to the fact that many taxis simply disregard the one-way sign.
Do not expect them to move out of the way.
At the best of times, there is little room to take such action due to the double parking of taxis as well as the number of vendors occupying the pavement areas. Legal/illegal, who knows?
It is also noted that many taxis have just taken over the pavements that are available as well as the station area, which are now also used as pick-up points.
The attached photo shows taxis utilising parking bays meant for ordinary road users in Station Road.
The road traffic sign clearly indicates that taxis are not permitted there. There is also a 30-minute time allocation that they also just ignore.
Lastly, the amount of refuse in and around the taxi rank and station precinct is just disgusting. Enforcement of by-laws governing littering?
If Fish Hoek has any intention of competing with Simon’s Town and Kalk Bay for business and tourists, something drastic needs to be done. The first step is to enforce the traffic and municipal by-laws.
• Mayoral committee member for urban mobility Rob Quintas responds: Thank you for bringing this to our attention, and we note the concerns raised. We have alerted the cleaning staff who will attend to this.
• The City’s traffic services spokesperson, Maxine Bezuidenhout, responds: The City’s traffic officers regularly patrol the area and issue fines. Residents can report any transgression by phoning the City’s public emergency communication centre at 021480 7700 from a cellphone and 107 from a landline.
