Department fails us

I HAVE read an article in the Hermanus Village News late April edition concerning building projects.

I note that Mr Stephen Muller from Overstrand Municipality contributed to the article by reciting the building regulations without making any comment on the Building Department’s role in the protection of the environment or protecting the interests of neighbours.

During a recent nine-month building project in Onrus, the building contractor used the reserve area in five of the neighbourhood properties on a continuous basis for the storage of materials, concrete mixing, and rubble from pneumatic drill activity that in itself lasted continuously for five weeks.

The Building Department took no obvious action.

Also, surely Mr Muller must admit that before awarding planning permission, the Building Department should consult with direct neighbours on the implications involved with the project itself, and the negative aspects which the proposed building would create when complete.

These include the serious issue of the permanent degradation of functionality of security measures. This, in an area predominately occupied by elderly ratepayers on a permanent basis.

Lastly, Mr Muller repeated the wording of the Overstrand website concerning building plans, which in the first sentence states “all building plans are available at the Building Services offices at any time during office hours”.

Yet in the next sentence it states that plans are only available to owners, or those with their written permission, after a fee has been paid.

Presumably the same amount that ratepayers must pay the department if they wish to make a complaint.