Saving St Francis Archives – St Francis Today

SRA Q&A’s

by admin | Jan 26, 2017 | SRA, St Francis

Some SRA Q&A’s

In answer to some of the questions raised by e-mail and on comments on posts, St Francis Property Owners responded to questions submitted to them by St Francis Today.

SRA Q&A’s

Does Cape St Francis form part of the overall vote or is CSF regarded as a separate entity and will be included only if 50% of CSF property owners vote yes? At a meeting in PE the audience was informed that Cape St Francis had “opted out”. How will funds be split if Cape St Francis is involved…and this all goes ahead.

CSF is not part of the SRA. The CSF Civics Association declined to be part of this a year ago.

There a number of CSF property owners who have questioned this and feel that a broader base of CSF property owners need to be consulted.

When and how is Sea Vista going to benefit?

Sea Vista is excluded from the SRA, as the upliftment of all underprivileged areas are the specific responsibility of the Municipality and the Human Settlements Dept. One of the key objectives to developing the St Francis Vision 2030 was to define how we could assist with the upliftment of Sea Vista, including access to CSI spend and job creation. Please read the St Francis Vision 2030 document (available on the following website : www.stfrancispropertyowners.co.za).

At what stage into the scheme – if it goes ahead – will roads/streets/ storm water drains/ main sewerage be tackled or is it really all about the beach/spit and canals and the 550 canal properties

The top priority is arterial roads (10kms) and storm water drains (R31m). Parallel to this we have to complete the design phase of our river, beach and spit solution, and submit this to DEDEAT (Dept of Enviromental Affairs) to approve the project (this is expense will be about R1m and will probably be funded out of the donations we have received). This initial phase of work for the river is expected to take 12-18 months before any work can actually start on moving sand from the river to the spit and beach. The Security cameras are also a priority given the escalation in crime recently. The Water Borne Sewerage (R106m) and Street paving (R67m) projects are longer term priorities, like the River/Spit/Beach (R133) because this is where the bulk of the costs lie and we will rely on the levy to fund these as we receive the money. The cost of de-silting the River and depositing it on the beach and Spit will cost about R119m, and the groynes for keeping the sand on beach (R15m). The Spit is the smallest part of the whole cost as it is only about one-third the length of the entire beach from Main Beach to the River mouth. People keep saying that this SRA is of sole benefit to the Canals. This is simply not true. The Canal property owners already pay a levy of R212 per month to maintain the canals. We are submitting an application to DEDEAT to allow the Riparians to use their dredger to also maintain the Spit. Nobody else pays for maintenance of the Canals. The Riparians have an agreement similar to the SRA already in place for the past 4 years to get this levy paid to them by the Municipality to maintain the canals. Look how well it has worked! The Sra is no different, but because it is a new levy we have to use the SRA legislation to do it.

How is every single home/erf owner going to be reached – some simply do not ‘do’ the various media related options. A flyer with the Rates/Water/Electricity account ?

We are using a number of different communication channels including public meetings, one-on-one meetings with people, email, WhatsApp, Facebook, Call Centre (phoning), Private Estate Body Corporate communication channels and monthly bills, and public media ie St Francis Today and The Chronicle.

Do you have any information about the impact of suggested sand handling at the spit on the configuration of the surf spots ?

Since surfing is one of the attractions of St Francis Bay, this is probably a parameter to account with We are not using offshore reefs, but instead Groynes, so we don’t expect to disturb surfing spots.

The Beach solution design team have to investigate all impact as part f the EIA submission to DEDEAT. To make this procedure legitimate, legal and transparent surely ALL ratepayers in St Francis Bay should receive a voting form attached to their monthly rates and utilities bill. This should include ALL relevant voting details and dates as well as the full proposed costs of having a special rates area operating in the area.

The Kouga Municipality asked the SFPO Association to bring them consent forms (hardcopy) proving that a majority of property owners support the SRA levy before they will approve our SRA application. This process is legal and confirmed by a legal team we asked to verify our process. This is very simple and transparent. These consent forms are available for inspection at our SFPO offices.

If we cannot get the majority then the SRA proposal will be abandoned, the Committee will resign, what is left of the donations repaid, and the SFPO NPC liquidated.

If not SRA then what?

by admin | Jan 26, 2017 | SRA, St Francis

If not a Special Rates Area, then what?

Following numerous questions from readers regarding the SRA, St Francis Today submitted some of the more pertinent questions to St Francis Property Owners committee to which they have responded in detail. READ SRA Q&A

Most concerning is their comment in the final paragraph of that Q&A post. Looking back to a meeting of St Francis Bay Residents Association held way back in October 2015 at St Francis Bay Golf Club, Nigel Aitken, and then chairman of the Residents association appealed to the younger St Francis community to take the baton and breathe some fresh ideas into the association. At that time Chris Gray, now one of the founder members of what is now the Saving St Francis committee member, was the first to rise to the challenge and along with Wayne Furphy, started the ball rolling by analysing each aspect of the failing infrastructure of St Francis, not only of the Bay area but rather St Francis as a whole.

These two gentleman were joined by equally accomplished and successful business leaders who have spent not only many hours of their time but also funded much of the work done to date on developing a workable plan to ‘Save St Francis’. None who have followed the development of ideas since the new committee can deny that they have accurately assessed, with the help of consultants, the declining fortunes of St Francis and come up with a workable solution to the failing infrastructure.

The Kouga municipality has made it quite clear they are unable to finance what needs to be done, even when a new budget is put into place in July this year. It is an incontestable reality that the poor will get the biggest slice of the cake whether one feels it is fair or not. That is the way it is all over our country and the previously advantage must ‘lump it or leave’.

So if the money isn’t generated by the local community, where is it going to come from?

As said in previous posts on St Francis Today, there has not been a single suggestion yet on an alternative. There certainly have been many criticisms on what the Saving St Francis committee has suggested as a way of arresting the decay but not one on a working alternative.

And so back to that final statement in the Q&A post.

That the committee will resign if the SRA is a rejected! This leaves us with a huge question. Who will step into these committed gentlemen’s shoes? Are there other experienced and successful business leaders who could be approached to take over? Methinks not, for those remaining experienced business folk would no doubt have voted YES to the proposal and as such would realise that any future efforts would be futile and a waste of their time and money.

Check your vote

by admin | Jan 17, 2017 | St Francis

Check your vote has been recorded

To ensure no votes go astray, St Francis Property Owners have put up a useful page on their website where you can check your vote and make sure your vote has been received and registered.

St Francis today has received comments on why the Voting Box is not a locked and secure box. To answer this ….

All votes are recorded as they come in and are then verified to ensure they are

There are no duplicates
They forms have been signed by the property owner or the designated signatory in case of a trust
That the vote corresponds with the correct ERF
That the vote has not been altered (ie a spoilt vote).
In the event that there is a spoilt vote or ERF or other information is incorrect the voter will be contacted to ensure all information on the form is correct
A list of all votes received are published on the Sf Francis Property Owners website where voters can visit and endure their vote has in fact been received.

Once the voting count reaches above 50% plus ONE point, either FOR or AGAINST, all votes will again be verified, this time by an independent auditor before the final outcome is announced.

So get your vote in TODAY!

If you have already voted you can check to see if your vote has been recorded at the following URL.

http://stfrancispropertyowners.co.za/saving-st-francis/sra-levy/votes-received/

The Voter registration page is updated every evening.

Saving St Francis – Gauteng Meeting

by admin | Jun 22, 2016 | St Francis

St Francis Property Owners encouraged to attend Saving St Francis meeting in Gauteng

Over the next couple of months the SFPO will be holding a number of meeting in various areas of the country. It is starting with a meeting in Johannesburg on 21st July 2016 at the Inanda Country Club.

St Francis Bay Property Owners residing in Gauteng are encouraged to attend and readers are asked to forward this information to friends and colleagues in Gauteng.