Billy’s Beach

by | Oct 31, 2017 | St Francis

Billy’s Beach under threat?

At the Mayor’s  feedback meeting on Thursday evening, Nigel Aitken brought up the subject of Billy’s Beach and the fact that Dedeat had not given the go ahead to hold their event this year. If this indeed the case we have a serious problem on our collective tourism plate. Billy’s Beach is a major holiday attraction and should DEDEAT (Dept of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism) not allow them to operate it will have long term repercsuuins on our holiday tourism. In terms of economic development Billy’s offers many locals employment and undoubtedly helps these youngsters gain a little work experience.

As far as the environment is concerned it is difficult to see how holding this well organised and run event can cause any environmental damage to a stretch of sand that seems to have stood up to it pretty well over the past six years.  It cannot be the noise it will generate for The Ruins which will be run over the same period and has been given the go ahead will no doubt generate just as much noise. Billy’s is about giving something to the tourists who visit our town and caters for a totally different demographic to the Ruins so if some mischievous souls have a hidden agenda they really butt out.

Apart from meeting the entertainment needs of so many in St Francs over the holidays, Billy’s runs a good shop employing locals and every year giving back substantially in Rand terms to charity.

Please back off DEDEAT or others who may be trying to sink Billy’s

Latest developments: St Francis Property Owners

by | Jul 5, 2016 | St Francis

St Francis Bay Property Owners LogoGreetings to all St Francis Property Owners and Residents from our lovely seaside village. We are very pleased that the DEDEAT issued their authorisation for the repairs to the Beach revetments and the Spit on the 1st of June. There was a period of 20 days allowed for appeals. We have requested some amendments that allow us a little more flexibility in doing emergency repairs to the Spit. We are working with the Kouga Municipality to finalise an agreement in which the Municipality will authorise the NPC (Not For Profit  Company) to manage the Beach and Spit repairs. The SFPO set up this company to do all the restoration work we plan to do on St Francis’ infrastructure i.e. the River, Beach, Spit, Roads, Stormwater Drains and Sewerage. This is the same company that we are asking all property owners to make their donations to.

We are pleased to announce that the NPC has hired Greg Miller as a full-time Manager to manage all infrastructure projects we undertake. Greg will start work with the NPC mid-July. Many of you will know Greg from the 3 years he spent as the Canal Manager with the Riparians Association, and following that as a member of the Riparians Committee.

We have organised meetings in:-

  • Johannesburg (Thursday 21 July at the Inanda Country Club in Sandton – 18:00),
  • St Francis Bay (Monday 25 July at The Links – 17:30 for 18:00),
  • Port Elizabeth (Tuesday 26 July at the Old Grey Club – 17:30 for 18:00).

The purpose of these meetings are to update you on:-

  • the Beach and Spit authorisation (Phase 1)
  • what is required to complete the EIA for Phase 2 in which we restore the River, Beach and Spit
  • present the Master Plans and Estimated Costs for the work we propose doing on restoring our Roads, Stormwater Drains and Sewerage.

This will give us a good understanding of how much money we need to raise to repair and restore our infrastructure.

For those of you in other areas but will be either in Johannesburg; St Francis Bay or Port Elizabeth over the dates mentioned above please feel free to attend the meetings.

Best wishes
SFPO Committee

St Francis Property Owners May Newsletter

by | Jun 17, 2016 | St Francis

St Francis Bay Property Owners LogoProperty Owners News

Greetings to you all from St Francis. We launched of our donation appeal to a pilot group of 100 property owners, and plan to spread this appeal to the broader group of property owners over the next few months.

We were referred by the Kouga Municipality to a group of Consulting Engineers who had recently completed a survey of all roads in the Kouga area on behalf of the Provincial Roads department. Following discussions with the Consulting Engineers, they submitted a proposal to complete a more detailed survey of the first section of road we wish to re-surface, including road levelling and stormwater drains. This section of road carries the highest traffic and includes Lyme Roads North and South, and the section of St Francis Drive linking these two roads and abutting the shopping centres of St Francis Bay.

We are still waiting for DEDEAT to issue their ROD (Record of Decision) for our FBAR submission for the Spit and Beach emergency repairs.

We have made good progress with developing a Disaster Management Plan for the greater St Francis area. Our plan has focussed on the Volunteer force that we would mobilise in the event of a disaster, be it fire, flood, sea surges, etc. The initial planning meetings included representatives from SFPO, Cape St Francis, NSRI, The Links, The Air Park, FOSTER, Kouga Wind Farm and Eskom. This group has also coordinated its plan with that of the Kouga Municipality who will provide the Emergency Services to any disaster event.

We have a follow up meeting the Kouga Municipality’s CFO in early June with respect to the possible establishment of the of an SRA for St Francis, and the emergency repairs to the Spit and Beach.

We need all property owners to join the SFPO so please encourage all your fellow property owners to join our association. We need to communicate with all property owners and we also need their support to “save St Francis”. This month Jacky has been updating the Association’s database, if you do not receive our monthly emailed newsletter or you have changed your telephone/cell number please contact Jacky on 042-200-1404 or email her on contact@sfbresidents.org.

Best wishes,
SFPO CommitteeSFPO Bank