Solve park’s issues

ITWAS thrilling to read in the Cape Times (July 28) that councillor Johannes van der Merwe is taking an interest in the Edith Stephens Wetland Park – even more so when he is the Mayco member for Environmental and Spacial Planning.

This letter is a plea to the City of Cape Town to please take up three Edith Stephens issues.

First, when I tried to visit there a few years ago, it was only open during office hours, but not on Saturdays nor Sundays.

This means that no one who has to work 9-5 can have access to the park. Please do lobby to get the ESWP a budget for staff during daytime at weekends, just like Wynberg or Claremont parks or Kirstenbosch.

I am sure the neighbouring communities will especially appreciate it being open at weekends for weddings and family events.

Second, Edith Stephens founded this park to preserve the world’s last surviving Isoetes plants. But there is no signboard up near these Isoetes, nor a boardwalk to where they survive. Please do get a signboard erected adjacent to these plants.

Third, if you look on the map, you’ll see that the Edith Stephens Wetland Park forms a trianglular shape of land between Jakes Gerwel Drive and two other roads. But on its south-east corner, there are still two privately owned plots of land with bricks and dumping on them.

Could the City please expropriate these last two plots so that the park is secured against industrial pollution and gains this whole piece of ground between its three boundary roads?

As urbanisation of its surrounds becomes completed in the next decade, Edith Stephens Park will become even more valuable as a greenlung asset to its densely packed neighbours.