Readers make comment on SRA
The purpose of some articles published on St Francis Today is sometimes to encourage dialogue and hopefully illicit comment from readers and nothing gives us greater joy than when readers comment, whether agreeing or disagreeing!
Of course the proposed SRA is not going to get the approval of every property owner and thus the need for the voting process. We live in a democracy and at the end of the day the number of YES votes against the number of NO votes will decide on whether the SRA goes ahead or not. Every property owner has the right, and must exercise this right for a fair result. So if yesterday’s article has prompted you to get your voting form in, whether for or against, St Francis Today has achieved what we intended.
Not everybody will be able to afford the levy and it will stretch their budgets to breaking point (including Collo’s, Kevin). It is for this reason that St Francis Property Owners chairman Wayne Furphy, during the Q&A session at the AGM, made it quite clear that exemptions or adjustments to rate for those that applied for relief would most definitely be considered for it is not the intention of the proposed SRA to force those on limited or fixed incomes to be forced into ‘poor street’.
More in question is whether we can afford to let St Francis to decay any further. The Kouga municipality has made it quite clear that they do not have the resources and will be able to offer a a little more in terms of essential services than the previous council but even this will not amount to enough to address the failing infrastructure and certainly have no funds for further capital expenditure.
So if the proposed SRA is not the answer what is? To date the SRA is the only suggestion on the table but maybe someone has a better idea.
Comments
“Dankie vir die artikel en skakels om die publiek so stadig maar seker meer in te lig oor “Special Rates Areas (SRA)”. Hoe langer dit neem om SRAs te aktiveer, hoe langer gaan ons ‘n vervalle infrastruktuur en verwaarloosde omgewing hê. Vir die komitee van ‘n gemeenskap wat die stigtingswerk onderneem, is dit ‘n reuse taak”.
Antoine
“The proposed SRA levy – 50% of present property rates is not only an insult, but a joke to the ordinary home owner.
It sounds great, new roads, stormwater, sewers etc. – a complete new infrastructure! How many billion ?
Unlike the writer “Collo”, some homeowners pay their monthly rates and services timeously by forfeiting luxuries like new cars and medical aid schemes.
Just wondering how many of the retired home owners in the town will be exempt from this proposed scheme but allowed to vote.
How ironic we are being coerced to pay more monies to a municipality which has for years squandered our rates and led to the present disintegrated infrastructure.
Voting – No – limited finances for ever increasing living expenses”.
Kevin
“Well done to Wayne Furphy and his committee. St Francis has gone thru many years of indecisiveness and squabbling as to what action should be taken regarding upgrading the infrastructure, replenishing the beach, safeguarding the spit etc, and we have long been in need of someone/persons to take the initiative and come up with a constructive and workable solution to preserve this special village we live in.Thank you for your time, effort and commitment”.
Charles
“What will be the priority areas that will be taken care of first? Does the spit swallow the bulk of the funds to the detriment of the rest of St Francis Bay, Santereme, St Francis on Sea”?
Liz
“Geen misverstand dit sal bil rande kos om dit tydelik reg te maak al gooi jy sement dolle soos in PE langs die Hi Way kan dit net tydelik wees
Maar weereens wil die in wooners op die cannels nie daarvan weet nie want dit lyk nie mooi nie
Ek dink ek praat namens almal wat hier in Santareme st francis on sea die port en otters landing ons sien geen nut waarvoor ons moet betaal nie
Die mense wat op die channels bly “deel with it”
Keep us out of your problem try the Goverment the sea belongs to them”. –
Nick
To Collo
Is it at all possible to create a “Forum” type column where all comments are consolidated so as to enable people to see what views have been expressed to date, and in this way assist property owners to establish the overall pro’s & con’s of establishing a SRA.
Good idea Liz. I shall certainly look at this idea.
Interesting how most of the negative comments clearly indicate that those people have not even bothered to really try to find out what is really being proposed by the SRA. Of course they try to indicate that they know what it is all about but picking on the canal owners or the spit shows the lack of understanding. Equally they talk about all the money they pay in rates 60% of which goes to uplifting previously disadvantaged areas and does not go to sorting out the challenges of St Francis. Of course we can all wait for the Municipality to try and address the situation which inevitably means substantial rates increases as again less than 40% will be directed to St Francis this will eventually mean rates increases of something like like 120% will be needed to even begin attacking the issues highlighted under the SRA proposals. The SRA actually addresses Roads sewerage and many other aspects that have an impact on the broader community, not just the spit and the beach. What will the community do when the conditions deteriorate so that the visitors stop coming and shops start closing because they do not have that super boost provided those “horrible visitors” that we don’t want upsetting our lifestyles. Get real and understand the big picture and not your narrow ill informed opinion of what is needed. Government cant help and neither can the Municipality it is up to us as a community to act and take ownership
I am a recent retiree and, having bought a house in St Francis-on-Sea Phase II two and a half years ago, I expect to become a permanent resident soon. This SRA debate is concerning to say the least. Obviously, I am in favour of restoring and then maintaining the infrastructure of St Francis Bay. However, I would stop short of saying I fully endorse your 15 year vision as it implies more people, more development, more money, more pollution and I could go on and on.
While, in principle, I am in favour of the SRA idea, I am reluctant to agree to submit myself to a financial burden that I cannot guarantee I can carry successfully into the future. For me it is much more than being part of a “world class lifestyle destination” or having an improvement on an investment but whether I will still be able to afford being part of it ten, twenty , thirty years down the line.
For me pertinent questions become:
1 Will the 50% + 1 be a count from all property owners involved or a count from just those who vote? So how will this count be arrived at?
2 Should the SRA get the go-ahead, will the municipality decide on exemptions/reductions or will the executive of the SFBPOA decide? So how will decisions on exemptions/reductions be equitably made?
CD
As a retiree who settled here some 20 years ago, I would ask a couple of questions concerning this latest SRA initiative, I have my old municipal accounts from that time when SFB was a transitional municipality my total out goings to the municipality at that time was R750 per month of which R80 per month was for sewerage. as at that time we had a fully functioning septic tank I raised this with the local councillor who was and still is Mr. Ben Rheeder who told me that the Sewerage charge is being ring fenced to enable a fully reticulated sewerage system will be put in this has not happened. Our current municipal bill just received is for R4,880 for the month, which brings me to the point that my income has gone up very slightly in that time but ALL expenses have risen to a very large amount and I am sure that a great many pensioners will have the same of similar stories to tell. Now I am fairly computer literate but many of us don.t have a computer and don’t wish to have so how is this voting matter get through to them, I have informed as many as I personally know but how is the general population going to be informed as the people I mentioned had no knowledge of it, will there be a mass mail shot perhaps with a municipality account or what and also what is the cut off date for voting plus is there a locked ballot box at Alva Merle Estates as I think the security of the ballots is essential.
Yes Barry Wild. We need to know far more about the voting procedure. Are the ballot boxes locked, what is the closing date, who will oversee the counting and approve the result. How will SAPO contact the those that do not have computers and do not read the Chronicle. It all seems a bit confusing at the moment. Do owners of undeveloped properties have to be contacted or not.
Lastly do the Committee of SAOPA read all the comments on St Francis Today.
And absolutely lastly. Collo you must make it easier to find these comments when one opens St Francis Today.
PS Collo. Please consolidate all the comments made so far under one headline to have a history to refer to.
Om genoeg stemme te verkry sal papierpos gebruik moet word. Daar is geen ander uitweg nie. Dit is duur. Die munisipale tabelle bevat die posadresse van eienaars wat eiendomsbelasting en beskikbaarheidsfooie betaal. ‘n Groot persentasie het geen e-posadresse in die e-posveld nie. Selfs telefoonnommers in die betrokke velde is nie volledig nie. Dit gaan ‘n groot administratiewe taak wees om almal te kontak. Dit is moontlik om die munisipale rekeninge te gebruik vir kennisgewings, maar daar is geen versekering dat almal dit gaan raaklees nie. Op die nuuste rekening aan die heel onderkant van die voorste bladsy is daar ‘n kennisgewing oor die waterbeperkings en ‘n voorspoedige nuwe jaar.
The ballot box at Alva Merle is an open cardboard box, how is that for a secured ballot system, Collo please make this known.