Owner had every right to block beach pathway
The article “A Scrooge in Cape St Francis – Surely not??” certainly managed to get the spider out the hole but we were out of order. Sadly we only elicited the local road community’s side of the story and yes from a community perspective they certainly appeared to have reason to complain, not having been given us all the facts.
Any property owner has a right to protect their property, particularly after having spent several hundred thousand Rand on finding a solution to a significantly eroded beachfront property. Our comments of the owner being “Scrooge-like” was uncalled for and unnecessary for the “surely not” really does apply. We apologise for any offense for we were caught up in the emotion and equally outraged by what appeared to be an act of selfishness but that is, in fact, a almost critical situation for the owner who was taking advice from experts in the field to save her property.
All that said it does go back to the community being kept informed. Last year the same community (read road) woke up one morning just before Christmas to find an MTN cell phone tower had been erected literally on their doorstep. Outraged, particularly as there were several cancer survivors living literally within a few metres of the installation, they showed their anger and the tower was de-activated. So along comes Christmas 2017 and something almost as offensive to them raises their ire, for now, they probably have that “why me” feeling.
In hindsight maybe the owner should have approached some of those in de Jonge Thomas r0ad and explained how blocking the pathway was an essential and urgent part of the proposed solution to stop plot 347 eroding further and possibly rehabilitating. The community was apparently aware that an extensive EIA had been carried out but in their protestations did not consider this could be the reason for the pathway being blocked. Certainly, the timing of the action also played its part for had it happened well before the onset of the holidays it would likely have caused less desperate and emotional outcry.
All said it is not the only road to have lost access to the beach and for this surely the town planners/council is to blame. Purchasing a seaside property that has no access to the beach is quite simply insane. To have access to the beach year in year out and then have it suddenly blocked because a new house has been built blocking that access not only affects the property value but will certainly annoy those affected by it.
Please ask your editor to check grammar and use spell check. Thanks