Port Alfred CBD an overnight truck stop
IT HAS become a vexing issue to many that articulated trucks, travelling along the R72 at night, park off at various places overnight to enable drivers to sleep or buy food, and a favourite place is the Lounge nightclub car park, opposite the police station.
“Perhaps they [the drivers] feel safer being next to the police station, but this causes problems for my customers at the Lounge,” manager Antony de Bruin said
De Bruin said there are sometimes up to four large trucks in the Lounge car park overnight.
“We cater to a lot of young people in town, mostly Stenden and 43 Air School students who have to navigate around these big trucks to get in or out of the car park. It is not safe,” he said.
Other trucks park in Main Street in the CBD overnight, and use the side streets to turn around.
Talk of the Town also received complaints that trucks were stopping at the intersection of Albany Road and Bathurst Street (at the fire station) to buy food at Buddy’s across the road, and are causing traffic problems.
Congestion in and around town has increased significantly since the work on the R72 was commissioned, and stop/go’s are the order of the day, with some vehicles backed-up for up to 15 minutes at a time. This, in itself, has been the cause of many Facebook rants.
However, the corner of the R72 and Main Street, and particularly across Biscay Road, has become a nightmare for drivers as huge delivery trucks attempt to negotiate the badly churned-up road surfaces in order to deliver goods to local shops and supermarkets.
But the problem of drivers parking their trucks illegally has many questioning what the municipality and its traffic department are doing about the problem.
Municipal spokesman Cecil Mbolekwa responded: “The issue regarding the Lounge parking is currently under investigation to obtain clarity as to whether it is private or public property. This will determine the way forward in dealing with the matter.”
Mbolekwa said additional signage will be procured and erected to demarcate where trucks may park in Main Street and elsewhere.
“With regard to the alleged parking of trucks at the fire station in order to visit Buddy’s, we are not aware of this. However I must also make it very clear that should we find any vehicle parking in contravention of the National Road Traffic Act [93/1996], we will prosecute the driver accordingly,” Mbolekwa wrote.
“Should anyone become aware of trucks parked illegally near Buddys, they are to contact the Fire Control Room at (046) 624-1111 and report such vehicles. The Fire Control Room will then contact the nearest traffic or SAPS member.”