Council unveils plans for Stables
AS the battle lines were being drawn in the Durban High Court yesterday for a massive legal showdown between the Stables market owners and the eThekwini municipality, the council unveiled its plans for major changes in the Stables market area during a sports summit, also held yesterday.
In the Durban High Court yesterday, the Newmarket Stables was granted an adjournment in their legal case against the municipality, who want to remove the stables from the site to make way for a soccer academy and high performance centre.
Belinda Stirling, the attorney for the Stables, said no legal arguments were heard from either side in court yesterday, as the Stables had yet to file their answering papers. The matter was then adjourned to July 21. Stirling said they could not file their papers as they were still awaiting documents that the city had failed to provide.
Meanwhile, the municipality held a sports summit at the George Campbell School of Technology, where sportspeople were invited to share their views on the city’s fiveyear strategy for sport.
The proposal includes a framework for how sporting activities need to be rolled out, encouraging transformation and social cohesion, and promoting healthy lifestyles.
Thembinkosi Ngcobo, the head of parks and recreation at the municipality, said the city was putting its plan in place, which would coincide with the Commonwealth Games in 2022.
“We need proper plans for the city to promote social cohesion and implement plans to achieve this. Sport is one way to do this,” he said.
He said the soccer academy, to be based where the Newmarket Stables is located, was one of the city’s major plans for sport development.