Sell Klipriver Park proposal

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=30 BGCOLOR="#0066CC" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" width="100%" style=" border-left: 1px solid #3366CC;" BGCOLOR="#000066" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>Tulbagh Info Information</B></div> <div> Sell Klipriver Park proposal</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="239" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER BGCOLOR=#0099CC HEIGHT= 30 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="local_news.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tulbagh News Page 2"><U>Back to Local News</U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER BGCOLOR=#0099CC WIDTH="116"><div> <A HREF="klip_river_park.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Klipriver Park"><U>Klipriver Park past and present</U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> J A Veschini</div> <div> P O Box 10, </div> <div> Tulbagh,</div> <div> 6820</div> <div> email : <A HREF="mailto:rockyvalley@telkomsa.net" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:rockyvalley@telkomsa.net"><U>rockyvalley@telkomsa.net</U></A></div> <div> 023 2302172</div> <div> 082 6538229</div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> 21 July, 2010</div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> The Municipal Manager</div> <div> Witzenberg Municipality</div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> Dear David,</div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> <B>Community Consultation meeting held at the Witzenville Hall Wednesday 14 July, 2010</B></div> <div> <B>regarding the possible alienation of KlipriverPark.</B></div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> I thank you for the thorough presentation that you and your officials made to the community on the above evening. It was no doubt informative and a wake up call to those who still believe that we should delay on a decision on the future of the Park.</div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> I made rough notes throughout the evening of salient points raised in the meeting as follows more or less;</div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> <B>Background and general discussion</B></div> <div> 1.       The first community consultation meeting by the ANC led administration took place on 17 July 2006. That meeting ended in Chaos and no clear indication of what the community felt should happen to the Park was evident. Council never made a final decision resulting from this meeting.</div> <div> 2.      The DA led administration held a further community participation meeting on about 10 or 11 April 2007. At that meeting or as a result of consultation with the Tulbagh Church Groups, Council was informed by their representatives that the Churches would go with a Council decision whatever it may be. At a meeting with Business, Council was given their support to sell the property and that any adjacent land should be included in the process. Various other suggestions came from that meeting including possible Sectional Title, Time Share etc.</div> <div> 3.     Public commented of the fact that this process was four years down the track and still no decision.</div> <div> 4.     Public suggested that the value of the Park should be determined. MM confirmed that a valuation had been obtained and it was about R5 million.</div> <div> 5.     Public suggested that the Park should be run by the community but the Municipal Manager replied that this was not possible due to legal constraints.</div> <div> 6.     Public remarked that it was good to hear the voice of the community.</div> <div> 7.     Public suggested that it is high time that Council made a decision on this matter given the input they have had previously and now, as they were elected to make decisions and were custodians of Public/Municipal property and should work in the best interests of the community after due consultation.</div> <div> 8.     Public complained about how the Park had been run. Municipality accepted that there had been problems of capacity but assured the community that posts are now being filled on a permanent basis and the Municipality is functioning better and more efficiently and in fact has had an unqualified Auditor General's report for the past two years.</div> <div> 9.     MM stressed however that Province had raised questions about the role of the Municipality in running resorts at a loss and that it is not the core business of a municipality to run resorts but rather to effect service delivery.</div> <div> 10.     Municipality speaker reported that there were three main reasons why the Park was not being run properly and this had been researched properly. They were a) Bad state of the Park due to lack of finances and maintenance as a result. b) Municipality was short of capacity to run the resorts. c) The resorts were not financially viable.</div> <div> 11.     The Municipal official provided some figures on the state of the finances of the Park as for the 2008 financial year as an example as follows;</div> <div>    </div> <bR> <div>  <B> Expenditure </B>    </div> <div>      Labour and salaries      R 902,000</div> <div>      General expenses         R 172,000</div> <div>      Maintenance                   <U>R  32,000</U></div> <div>      Total                                <U>R1140,000</U></div> <div>  </div> <div>  </div> <div>    <B>   Income</B></div> <div>      Chalets                          R 604,000</div> <div>      Camping                        R 185,000</div> <div>      Fess and other             <U>R 209,000</U></div> <div>      Total                               <U>R 810,000</U></div> <div>  </div> <div>      Loss for that year       (R329,000)</div> <bR> <div> 12.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" >             </FONT>The MM told the meeting that the forecasted loss for the 2010 financial year was estimated to be in the region of R558,000 and that this was clearly unsustainable.</div> <div> 13.        Public made a comment that should the Municipality have not underprovided for maintenance, the loss would have probably been closer to R500,000 per annum rather than R329,000 as stated and that meant that over the past 10 years the losses have probably been more than the Park is worth today. </div> <div> 14.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" >             </FONT>Public commented that the Caravan park as it is, is not an asset but a liability although having a caravan park run properly by private enterprise would be an asset to the town.</div> <div> 15.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" >             </FONT>Public also commented that roads, stormwater, electrical, water and sewerage reticulation and buildings were assets that had to be maintained. If these are allowed to deteriorate further as a result of losses being effected on the Park, this would cause these assets to deteriorate too.</div> <div> 16.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" >             </FONT>Public suggested that the Park should be sold and the money used to maintain our other Tulbagh assets as above and upgrade where necessary.</div> <div> 17.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" >             </FONT>Public suggested that from a tourism perspective, the Park is not even being advertised or recommended due to the state that it is in.</div> <div> 18.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" >             </FONT>Public raised the emotive issue of the fact that the community were denied the use of the facility for picnicking and swimming in the Apartheid years and if it is sold they would have lost this facility forever. </div> <div> 19.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" >            </FONT>Public suggested that a pool and picnic area could be made available to the community on adjacent land.</div> <div> 20.        Public commented that the Park would probably cost in excess of R2 million just to bring it up to standard. </div> <div> 21.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" >             </FONT>In reply to a question, the MM suggested that Council had not made any decision and had yet to do so but a decision must be made, whether the decision is made to go for a lease, a public/municipal partnership or outright sale.</div> <div> 22.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" >             </FONT>The Public was invited to make further written representations.</div> <bR> <div> In terms of 12. above, I hereby make written representation and attach a proposal of a possible subdivision of the Council land that will allow for the sale of the Park and adjacent land whilst providing for a most needed picnic area on the Klipriver for the consideration of Council.</div> <bR> <div> This proposal will also be tabled at the forthcoming committee meetings of the DA Tulbagh Branch as well as the TRIF committee for their consideration, discussion and thoughts on the matter.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Kind regards,</div> <bR> <bR> <div> John Veschini</div> <div> Tulbagh</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="f3dc0a00.jpg" border=0 width="704" height="672" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </td> <td valign="top" width=28 style=" border-top: 1px solid #0066CC; border-left: 1px solid #0066CC;border-right: 1px solid #0066CC; border-bottom: 1px solid #0066CC;" BGCOLOR="#0066CC" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>