The issue around mowing and no mowing was a contentious one at the Pinelands City Improvement District’s (PLCID) annual general meeting.

Residents who attended the meeting, held at the Pinelands Club last Wednesday, were up in arms over the uncut parks, public open spaces and verges in the Garden City.

PLCID chairman Sandy McGuffog said they had tried to negotiate with the City to permit them to mow and have the City reimburse them, but he said City policies had prevented that.

“The mowing issue is a complex one. The City has to follow their ‘supply chain management’ rules.

“The CID has approached the City to take over all mowing in Pinelands, but under the current rules that’s difficult. The supply chain rules, or at least the way the City interprets the supply chain rules, mean that the City must go out to tender for the mowing services.

“The City has stated that the CID could bid for this, but the ‘packages’ of work that the City puts out cover a larger area than just Pinelands, and the CID is legally barred from providing services outside of Pinelands. So, as yet, there is not a good answer on this. We’re still working on this via our ward councillor and the sub-council structures,” he said.

Ward councillor Riad Davids said the area had had six mows last year which included five good mows and one dust mow (a mow soon after the last).

“The City has started mowing in Pinelands but because of how large the area is, it will take some time to get through. There is also the moratorium on mowing in certain areas,” he said.

The City claims its “no mow” drive is meant to protect ecological processes that promote the growth of distinctive fynbos vegetation. So, between August and the end of November, no mowing takes place at specific public open spaces, to allow for spring flowers and a variety of indigenous plants to bloom and seed.

No-mow areas in Pinelands include Coronation, Julianaveld, Inverness, Wattle Grove Road and Kings Place parks, Sunrise Circle, Morningside Street, and Woodside Drive verges and Frikkie Knoetze Arboretum.

In his chairman’s report, Mr McGuffog said the CID, which has been running since June last year, had completed the necessary steps for operation including registering a new non-profit company.

“We have had a full complement of public safety patrols running since last November and initiated cleaning and greening activities in December. The first of our additional public safety cameras was installed in January and we had our first AGM last year. We also received a clean audit for our first year,” he said.

Aslam Clarke, from the public safety portfolio, said four vehicles patrolled the area’s 260 streets 24/7.

There were two permanent cycle patrollers and two more would be added over the festive season, he said, adding that the City also provided two dedicated Law Enforcement officers.

“Our camera project is 85% complete with 48 cameras that still need to be installed. Our control room is operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” he said.

Marilynn McNamara, of the environmental development, maintenance and cleaning portfolio, said a team of eight people swept gutters and pavements, cleaned the canal and other public spaces, cleared overgrown pathways and pruned tree canopies.

Ms McNamara said the CID was still looking for a suitable site for a proposed dog park project. She said that of the 476 responses to the CID’s dog park survey, 80% of respondents had a dog, 82.6% felt there was a need for the dog park, 87.1% felt the park would need to be fenced and 66.7% felt that existing parks should be enhanced to cater for dogs.

“We will also be conducting more public participation on this project. We have received feedback from dog trainers on the benefits of this as well as their concerns,” she said.

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Mowing issues plague Pinelands