Parking lot used for partying and pooping

NORTH Beach residents want the metro police to put more effort into enforcing the nuisance by-laws to maintain order and peace in the area.

The disgruntled residents say they are being tortured by the conditions they live under. They claim the chaos in the parking lot in front of Willsborough Mansions in Seaview Road continues unabated day and night.

The city has deployed a day security guard, they say, applauding the city for this. But it is not enough to resolve their problem, they say.

They complain that they cannot sleep as they are bombarded with loud noise, public drinking, urination and defecation outside their buildings.

Resident Duane Dry says people party on the parking lot all night and no fines are imposed. They are not removed, either.

“The bars along Gillespie street sell alcohol until 6am. Some people buy takeaways and consume them in our parking lot while playing loud music. We have witnessed people getting mugged and raped in our parking lot.”

Day says the residents are hoping the city’s nuisance by-laws, which became effective in March last year, will resolve their problems. The by-laws deal with a

variety of nuisance behaviour, including noise and littering. They are supposed to provide measures to regulate and control conduct or behaviour which causes discomfort or inconvenience to the public.

They provide a detailed description of prohibited conduct, which includes hanging of items on fences, walls or balconies and noise.

City Watch has established that only 158 fines (according to the DA) have been issued for noise violations in the past year: an average of fewer than two fines per ward for an entire year.

Larraine Sukdev, also a resident, says she has given up reporting the matters to the metro police.

“The metro station is right opposite our place, but it can take forever for the police to come here. We’ve come to the point where we’ve accepted this is our lives, it hurts. Not a single fine has been issued for contravening the by-laws.”

She says that as elderly residents they deserve to live in a peaceful community, and the metro police needs to crack the whip with those who violate the city’s laws.

Residents have appealed for the metro to deploy a night shift security guard, as that would be an effective means to resolve the issues.

Yugen Moodley of Bayview, in Chatsworth, had to erect ‘No Dumping’ signage against the trees as the municipality took three months to issue the signboards.

The bars in Gillespie Street, North Beach, are contributing to noise and filth for Willsborough Mansions residents, many of them pensioners, who are pleading for the Durban metro police to intervene.